The Robert Wise papers, 1904-2001 (bulk 1954-1979), consist of film files, awards and ephemera, correspondence, personal papers and publications, and bound scripts created and collected by Wise during his life and career as a motion picture producer and director. The majority of the collection comprises film files of twenty-six projects (both completed as well as proposed) featuring numerous drafts, treatments, and sections of scripts, as well as production information, budgets, correspondence and memos, call sheets, casting information, clippings, publicity, photographs, sheet music, and original storyboards. Featured film titles include "The Sound of Music", "West Side Story", "Star!", "The Haunting", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", and voluminous material on the never-produced "Battle! The Lives and Wars of Robert Capa".

The remainder of the collection consists of awards and ephemera (including Wise's Golden Globe in 1961 for West Side Story), correspondence, and personal papers and publications in the form of photographs, film magazines, novels, event programs, and trip itineraries. The collection also includes leather-bound final drafts and annotated shooting scripts for thirty Wise-related projects, including "The Magnificent Ambersons", "West Side Story", "The Set-Up", "The Andromeda Strain", "The Curse of the Cat People", and "The Day the Earth Stood Still".