The papers of Hanson Weightman Baldwin (1903-1991) date from 1920 to 1978 and most prominently document his student years at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, along with his subsequent tour of active duty in the navy, his early years as a general assignment newspaper reporter, and his participation as an active member of both the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and the Naval War College, Washington, D.C. The papers are organized into the following series: Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, and Miscellany.

The Correspondence series contains letters exchanged between Baldwin and his parents which provide details of Baldwin's years at the United States Naval Academy and describe the atmosphere of academy life in the period immediately following World War I. A file containing report cards and other school records from his student days is located in the Subject File, while the Miscellany series includes several personal notebooks kept by Baldwin at the academy.

Following his graduation from the Naval Academy, Baldwin served as an officer aboard the battleship Texas and the destroyer Breck. In 1928 he began his career as a newspaper reporter after having resigned from active naval duty the previous year. Baldwin's letters to his parents in the Correspondence series provide information on his life as a young naval officer and also on his early years as a general assignment reporter, first with the Baltimore in 1928 and a year later with the New York , the paper with which he would be associated for the remainder of his career. Although the Correspondence also contains letters to and from friends and former shipmates which further document this period of Baldwin's life, there are few letters in the series which illuminate his newspaper career after his appointment in 1937 by the as the first full-time military correspondent, and later military editor, on an American newspaper.

Baldwin's service as a commissioned officer in the navy, both on active duty and in the Naval Reserve, is also documented in the Subject File. Records in this file concerning his resignation in 1933 give evidence to the conflict which arose between Baldwin's position as a Naval Academy graduate and naval officer, whose code required conduct loyal to the service, and his role as a newspaper reporter, whose commitment to objective and unprejudiced reporting demanded freedom of expression, when an article written by Baldwin contained information that was deemed sensitive by naval authorities. Explaining his position in a memorandum to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation dated 1 March 1933, Baldwin wrote, "Loyalty cannot be interpreted from my viewpoint as preventing me the free and unabridged statement of fact or expression of opinion."

The Subject File also contains records relating to Baldwin's appointment as president of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association and to his membership on the board of advisors of the Naval War College. Baldwin's literary manuscripts, few of which are included in the collection, are filed in the Speeches and Writings File.