Correspondence, diaries, journals, notebooks, financial materials, photographs, and other papers pertaining to Hayden's naval and scientific careers and to the Hayden family. Topics include Hayden's position as secretary of the National Geographic Society (1895-1897), his work in charge of time service and chronometers at the United States Naval Observatory (1902-1910), his command of the U.S. Naval Station at Key West, Fla. (1910-1915), his various inventions and patents, and his scientific research in hydrography, meteorology primarily relating to hurricanes, and timekeeping.

Includes family papers providing documentation of military family life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Papers of Edward Hayden's children document Reynolds Hayden's service with American military forces in the Boxer Rebellion; Herbert B. Hayden's years as a cadet at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.; Alfred Hayden's school years at Staunton Military Academy, Staunton, Va., and the Virginia Military Institute; and Mary Bainbridge Hayden's career as a journalist especially her coverage of Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign of 1928. Also includes the papers of Edward Hayden's grandfather, William Hayden, postmaster of Boston (Mass.), whose correspondents include Jacob Collamer, John Davis, and Daniel Webster; and of Edward Hayden's father-in-law, Joseph Jones Reynolds, relating especially to his command of military districts in Louisiana and Texas during the Reconstruction.