The papers of George Fielding Eliot (1894-1971) span the years 1939-1971, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1950-1971. Included are general correspondence, subject files, article and book files, and a miscellany file. Almost all of the papers in the collection, including the correspondence and subject files, center around his writings. The collection is organized into seven series: General Correspondence, Subject File, General Article File, Encyclopedia File, Newspaper Column File, Book File, and Miscellany.

The General Correspondence is made up mainly of letters exchanged with editors of the periodicals and encyclopedias to which Eliot contributed his writings. This correspondence is generally of a routine business nature, concerning the financial arrangements for articles and book reviews. In numerous letters Eliot discusses new ideas for articles with his editors and colleagues and gives insight into his personal views, especially on the matter of national defense. A considerable portion of the correspondence is with high ranking military men and various offices with the Department of Defense. These communications are mainly directed at obtaining information and source material for Eliot's writings. Several of these military figures were acquaintances of Eliot's and the letters are written in a personal vein. Included are Arleigh A. Burke, Wallace Martin Greene, W. Barton Leach, and Sir John Cotesworth Slessor.

The Subject File reflects Eliot's article ideas in various stages of development, with some topics consisting of a few handwritten notes and others of considerable material on a given subject.

Eliot's articles constitute fully two-thirds of the entire collection. The General Article File contains manuscripts, drafts, notes, and source material for articles and book reviews written for periodicals such as Family Weekly , National Guardsman, Suburbia Today , National Review , and the American Legion Magazine. Also included is correspondence relating to the articles. Subjects include military history, naval strategy and history, problems in suburbia, and the Vietnam conflict.

The Encyclopedia File contains primarily those articles written by Eliot as military editor of Collier's Encyclopedia . Also within this series are articles written for other encyclopedias. Correspondence relating directly to the articles is also present.

The Newspaper Column File consists of manuscripts and typed drafts of Eliot's twice weekly syndicated column appearing Mondays and Wednesdays called The Military Scene, written for approximately thirty daily newspapers.

The Book File is composed of outlines, unpublished manuscripts, drafts, and source material. None of Eliot's published monographs are found in this series. This section also contains a limited amount of correspondence with editors relating to ideas for books, as well as requests by Eliot for information from various military sources.

The Miscellany contains Eliot's diary for January-April 1942, biographical data, a listing of lectures given by Eliot from 1939 to 1953, the texts of several speeches, and drafts of weekly radio broadcasts made during January-March 1971, just prior to his death.