The Benjamin E. Washburn papers contain few items of a personal nature. Consisting of reports, correspondence, scrapbooks, diaries, photographs, books and journals, the papers concern Washburn's employment with the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission (1913-1914) and the International Health Board/Division (1915-1939).

The collection contains miscellaneous office files of Sara Rios, former Director of the Human Rights and Governance Unit within the Peace and Social Justice Division at the Ford Foundation. Her office files contain conference files, reports, press materials, correspondence, and publications. Many grant-related materials in the collection between 1997 and 2000 are the files of Alan Jenkins. Jenkins preceded Rios in her role as Program Officer in the Peace and Social Justice Program from 1997-2000. Some correspondence with grantees and potential grantees is also present after 2000, when Jenkins became Deputy Director of Human Rights and International Cooperation at the Ford Foundation and when he was appointed Director of the reorganized Human Rights Program in 2001.