The Max Mason papers consist of four boxes of professional and business correspondence, research notebooks, manuscripts, lantern slides and memorabilia.

Mason's professional correspondence ranges from 1927 to 1938. Most of the letters are from the years he was President of the Rockefeller Foundation. Mason's correspondence with colleagues primarily concerns avenues of research, committee investigations and job changes. The nature of Mason's professional relationships with Robert Millikan, Louis Slichter, Karl Taylor Compton and John D. Rockefeller Jr. are exemplified in these letters. Certain folders hold correspondence with members of committees; the letters of the Chicago's World's Fair centennial Committee and two National Academy of Science Award committees indicate the depths of Mason's involvement in professional organization activities. A National Academy of Science folder contains a short but interesting autobiographical outline.

The business correspondence of Mason, Slichter and Hay comprises correspondence between Mason, his partners and clients who had major business contracts with the firm. Firm letters and reports concern consulting work to engineering businesses and patent developers. Most of the letters are between the partners and describe internal company decisions about patents, business deals and financial transactions. The later Mason, Slichter and Gauld company correspondence is predominantly internal, including business reports and letters on patent royalties, company and personal income taxes.

The notebooks indicate the type of mathematical study Mason pursued. A marble-bound student notebook from 1900 contains notes for a mathematics course with David Hilbert while Mason was a doctoral student at Gottingen University. Two loose-leaf notebooks from 1942 and 1943, while Mason was at Caltech hold mathematical computations with loose sheets of figures and diagrams.

The manuscript materials include typewritten drafts of Mason's work from different periods. These draft are prime examples of Mason's research and administrative writing ability. A number of address written by Mason for formal occasions also tell much about his professional attitudes toward scientific and everyday life. The addresses reveal a combination of personal anecdote and philosophical discussion; his topics emphasize rationality in the intellectual processes of scientific research.

The final box holds lantern slides (which might be illustrations for a lecture on Mason's submarine detection work) and memorabilia, including degree diplomas and citations.

Mason's contributions were primarily in mathematical physics, submarine detection development and scientific organization committee research. He published a number of articles and reports relating to his inventions and research. Mason was also an active administrator during his years at the University of Chicago, Rockefeller Foundation and California Institute of Technology. The Max Mason papers represent an important cross-section of his accomplishments.