Correspondence, memoranda, reports, articles, lectures, speeches, writings, notes, notebooks, course outlines, examinations, statements, agenda, minutes of meetings, bulletins, notices, invitations, press releases, applications, contracts, publications, charts, graphs, calculations, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and photographs.

The collection documents Rabi's research in physics, particularly in the fields of radar and nuclear energy, leading to the development of lasers, atomic clocks and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to his 1944 Nobel Prize in physics; his work as a consultant to the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and as an advisor on science policy to the U.S. government and to the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during and after World War II; and his studies, research, and professorships in physics chiefly at Columbia University and also at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Includes material on peaceful uses of atomic energy, strategic use of atomic weapons, nuclear test ban, population control, problems of underdeveloped countries, reduction of Cold War tensions, the scientific community's role in diplomatic relations with allies, and the U.S. space program. Also reflected is Rabi's work at the Aberdeen Proving Ground and with Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Atomic Energy Commission, President's Science Advisory Committee, and the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs.

Correspondents include Edouard Amaldi, Ruth Nanda Anshen, Hans Albrecht Bethe, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Vannevar Bush, K. T. Compton, Edward Uhler Condon, Sir Charles Galton Darwin, Lee A. Dubridge, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Lewis Finkelstein, Polykarp Kusch, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Emilio Segrè, Lewis L. Strauss, Leo Szilard, Harold Clayton Urey, J. H. Van Vleck, Antonino Zichichi, and Sir Solly Zuckerman.