Correspondence, diaries, memoranda, memoirs, drafts of writings, speeches, reports, notes, biographical and genealogical material, account books, financial papers, lists, printed material, maps, photographs, drawings, prints, and other papers relating to Scott's career in the U.S. Army from 1876 to his retirement following World War I, to his service as a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners (1919-1933) and as chairman of the State Highway Commission of New Jersey (1920s), and to his work on Indian languages at the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology.

Includes drafts of his memoir, Some Memories of a Soldier; a typescript of a journal (1845) kept by his father, William McKendree Scott; and family correspondence (1874-1933). Topics include expeditions against the Sioux (Dakota) and Nez Percé Indians, the ghost dance of the Plains Indians, sign language, government relations, religion, and other aspects of Indian life and culture; the Spanish-American War and administration of military government in Cuba; Scott's appointment as superintendent of the United States Military Academy; military preparation for World War I; and Scott's role as army chief of staff, superintendent of the United States Military Academy, and member of the U.S. special diplomatic mission to the Soviet Union in 1917. Correspondents include Tasker Howard Bliss, John J. Pershing, Mary Merrill Scott, Pancho Villa, Woodrow Wilson, and Leonard Wood.