The papers have been arranged into three series: 1. General Academic Files. 2. Photography. 3. Ferris Institute, Big Rapids, Michigan/Ferris Centennial (1984).

Series 1: General Academic Files

Russel Nye’s academic files are a mix of journal articles, handwritten notes, drafts of articles and lectures, teaching materials, research materials, professional and personal correspondence and various pieces that inspired him in his work. They are alphabetically organized, and include intellectual topics, historical subjects, geographical locations, and names of authors, public figures, private friends and colleagues. Academic journals which contain a number of Nye's published articles are included in box 4072. His academic files on the topic of photography have been separately organized under Series 2: Photography.

Also included is a twenty-six page paper entitled “The Thirties: the Framework of Belief” which was written by Russel B. Nye and delivered in April, 1974 at the 20th Century Conference in American Literature. In the paper, Nye discusses the framework of belief and the structure of ideas of the 1930s and identifies four major concepts that acquired their final form during the decade. The concepts were the rediscovery of sin, the acceptance of relativism, the promise of plenty, the discovery of culture.

Series 2: Photography

In later years, Russel Nye started a wide-ranging project on photography which he never completed. This series contains all the research and preliminary materials, much of which Nye organized. He also collected many photographs, including a large selection of portraits, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; their names are sometimes noted, but most remain anonymous.

Arrangement of the paper records are based on Nye’s topic list and numbering system. His handwritten guide is located in box 4070, folder 7; it covers the files titled "Technology" through "History Talk." The remaining paper files contain photography-related materials organized alphabetically by subject. Nye had created an organizational list similar to that above, but the files were not arranged or identified according to the list. Nye’s list can be found under “Nye, Russel – Organizational list.”

Boxes 4074 and 4075 contain Nye’s collection of photographs and a camera.

Series 3: Ferris Institute, Big Rapids, Michigan/ Ferris Centennial (1984)

Russel Nye was a charter member of the Ferris Board of Control and served from 1950 to 1967. In honor of the school’s centennial in 1984, a project was proposed to Nye by Robert and Caryl Ferguson and the Ferris Inaugural Committee to write a history of the school’s transition from a local vocational school to a regional educational institute. Nye’s monograph entitled Ferris Comes of Age: The Years of Transition, 1946–1963 was published in 1983 by Ferris Institute. This series contains research, correspondence and drafts pertaining to the monograph, as well as other Nye papers closely related to Ferris Institute.