The papers of Rodolfo R. Schuller (1873-1932) span the years 1492-1915. Almost all documents dated earlier than the twentieth century are handwritten copies of documents made by Schuller between 1908 and 1915. The original documents resided in repositories in Europe and North and South America. In addition to copying documents, Schuller created an extensive bibliography. The historical documents pertain to native languages and cultures of Latin America, cartography, and the discovery and exploration of the New World. Original research and field notes by Schuller, mostly concerning linguistic matters, and many lengthy, unpublished manuscripts by Schuller are also included among his papers. Documents are in Spanish, Portuguese, German, and English as well as Central and South American Indian languages. The papers are particularly strong in Brazilian/Amazonian topics.

When the Schuller Papers came to the Library of Congress, they were kept in the order in which they arrived. In 1960 Howard F. Cline, director of the Hispanic Foundation, outlined a topical order for the papers. The present arrangement is based upon the Cline outline and incorporates a large bibliographic card file that had been separated from the rest of the collection in 1913.

The papers are divided into two series: a Linguistic File and a Non-linguistic File . Items in the first series pertain to one or more native Latin American languages. Although items occasionally compare two or three languages, this is not evident from the container list alone, and the appendix should also be consulted. The Non-linguistic File is a mixture of historical, cartographic, anthropological, and bibliographical material.

The Schuller Papers also contain material from anthropologist Alberto Vojtěch Frič (1882-1944) who worked mostly in the Amazon region of Brazil (see items 34, 39, 78-93, 108 and 178). Included are unpublished manuscripts, a collection of myths, ethnographic notes, and photographs. Item 208 is a collection of original letters, 1871-1878, written by American geologist Charles Frederick Hartt (1840-1878). See also items 35, 41.7, 51, and 95 for Hartt's notes on linguistic matters.

Biographical information on Schuller is both scarce and incomplete. The information used for the Biographical Note was taken from Museu Paraense Emilío Goeldi, Inventário Analítico do Fundo Rudolf Schuller (Belém, 1987), pp.84-86.