Correspondence, memoranda, dispatches, speeches, reports, naval appointments, family papers, printed matter, maps, photographs, and other papers relating primarily to Benson's service as U.S. chief of naval operations during World War I. Includes material concerning the naval conference conducted by the Allies (1917), the commission appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to confer with the Allied and Associated Powers (1914-1920), Allied Naval Armistice Commission, Allied Naval Council, American Commission to Negotiate Peace, Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs hearings (1920), and postwar naval disarmament. Also documents Benson's service as commandant of the Philadelphia Naval Yard (1913-1915), his work related to shipping and the merchant marine as chairman and member of the U.S. Shipping Board (1920-1928), and his involvement in Catholic religious and fraternal organizations including his presidency of the National Council of Catholic Men (1921-1925).

Correspondents include Charles Francis Adams, Philip Andrews, Newton Diehl Baker, Bernard M. Baruch, Reginald Rowan Belknap, Tasker Howard Bliss, Montague C. Browning, William Hannum Grubb Bullard, William Banks Caperton, Michael Joseph Curley, Josephus Daniels, Norman H. Davis, Duncan Upshaw Fletcher, James Gibbons, Guy Despard Goff, Joseph C. Grew, Herbert Hoover, Edward Mandell House, Edward N. Hurley, Harry Shepard Knapp, John La Farge, Robert Lansing, Albert Davis Lasker, Peyton Conway March, Samuel McGowan, Albert P. Niblack, C.J. Peoples, John J. Pershing, James D. Phelan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hugh Lenox Scott, William Sowden Sims, Joseph Nathan Teal, Benjamin R. Tillman, Henry B. Wilson, and Woodrow Wilson.