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The materials that comprise the Historical Biographical Files have been collected and added to from a variety of sources over the years by current and previous staff. The files consist of materials related to people who have a connection to the University whether as student, alumni, administrator, faculty, staff, guest lecturer, or honorary degree recipient. Materials generally consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, programs, ephemera, printed matter, lists, reports, and pamphlets.

Correspondence, memoranda, notes, speeches, scientific data, photographs and printed material. Half of the collection relates to McGill's research and writing in the fields of experimental and mathematical psychology, particularly in the psychology of perception, and contains drafts of papers, notes, class materials and works by others. Also included are files relating to McGill's chairmanship of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting, files pertaining to his participation on the New York State Special Advisory Panel on Medical Malpractice, and some papers from his chairmanship of the psychology department, and later chancellorship, of the University of California, San Diego. Some personal correspondence and documents are also included. Among the cataloged correspondence are John W. Gardiner, Edward M. Kennedy, Margaret Mead, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jonas Salk, and Beverly Sills

This collection contains copies of William McGill's speeches delivered at Columbia University as well as at numerous other institutions from 1971 to 1980. It includes commencement speeches delivered at Columbia as well as Barnard and Cornell.