The papers of Henry Putney Beers (1907-1996) span the years 1910-1992, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period between 1930 and 1970. The collection focuses on Beers's professional activity as a bibliographer in American history. It consists of three series: Correspondence, Bibliographies, and Miscellany. Included in the papers are correspondence, reports and memoranda, employment records, office files, academic records, and other material pertaining to Beers's life and career.

The Correspondence series in the collection documents Beers's private and professional life from his college days through 1992. Topics of interest include hardships during the Great Depression and Beers's concern for and assistance to his aging parents, efforts to find a job after receiving his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1935; his persistence and eventual success in getting a position at the National Archives; his personal and professional relationship with his doctoral advisor, St. George L. Sioussat, who later became head of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress; the courtship of his future wife and their early married life; and his detailed accounts of life in the navy during World War II. The series also provides a chronicle of the development of Beers's thirty-year career as an archivist, bibliographer, and historian.

The Bibliographies series reflects Beers's activity as a compiler of historical publications. It consists primarily of correspondence with archival repositories and publishers, reports and memoranda, and book reviews. While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Beers compiled bibliographies on the American Indian, frontier history, and the trans-Mississippi West, subjects pertinent to his doctoral dissertation. Around this time he also compiled bibliographies on the states of New York and Pennsylvania. Beers's major work, first published in 1938, was followed by numerous updated editions over the next fifty years. Foreign archival records relevant to American history were compiled in , , , and During the centennial of the Civil War, Beers published guides to archival holdings of both the federal and Confederate governments. He also published several works on the United States Navy.

The Miscellany series consists of material relating to Beers's education, employment, and finances. The professional office file chronicles his surveys of federal records while with the Works Progress Administration and the National Archives as well as his stint as project editor with The series also contains a small section of writings by Beers comprised mostly of book reviews, papers, and material relating to the published version of his doctoral dissertation.