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Schaefer's connection with the University at Albany began in 1959 when the school was still known as the New York State Teachers College, located in downtown Albany. When Schaefer began the highly successful Atmospheric Physics Program via the Loomis School in Connecticut, he attracted the attention of Dean Oscar Lanford and President Evan Collins of the New York State Teachers College. They asked Schaefer to come teach at their Albany school, and within his first year as a faculty member, the idea for the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) was born. Officially established in February 1961, it was originally located in the old General Electric hangar at Schenectady Airport. Although the former New York State Teachers College expanded to the current uptown Albany campus in the mid-1960s, officially becoming the University at Albany, State University of New York, the ASRC remained centered in Schenectady at that time. Meanwhile, the Atmospheric Physics Program that began at the Loomis School shifted to Albany to be under the sponsorship of the ASRC, where it became the Natural Sciences Institute (NSI). However, since the program's roots were not originally with the ASRC and University at Albany, those records comprise their own series within this collection (Series #5).

Schaefer donated many films to the archives that are related to his work at General Electric, Munitalp, and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center/University at Albany, SUNY. There are also some reels that document his consulting work as well as a few that cover personal interests such as hiking. Films vary between 16 millimeter and 35 millimeter, with an emphasis on the latter. Some footage is black and white while other footage is in color. There were some film containers that arrived at the archives with two ID numbers on them; using Schaefer's own list, the archivist made every attempt to follow the creator's original numbering system. Due to time constraints on processing as well as the delicate nature of the film reels, most of the footage has not yet been viewed by the archivist. Please also note that the film titles are taken directly from Schaefer's own labels, which is why many are abbreviated.

The research laboratory at General Electric was the launching pad for some of Vincent Schaefer's most pivotal scientific work. This series contains research notes, photographs, reports (published and unpublished, internal and external), and correspondence relating to all of his more famous experiments as well as a range of lesser-known work accomplished during his years at the G.E. Research Laboratory in Schenectady. The materials cover topics such as smoke/artificial fog generation, surface chemistry, studies of ice and snow particles, and early cloud seeding. The series is divided according to areas of specific interest to Schaefer as well as correspondence and publications.

In 1952, General Electric published its own "History of Project Cirrus", compiled by Barrington Havens of G.E.'s public relations department. In his introduction, he writes that "[Project Cirrus] was very complex, with a number of subdivisions associated with the main activity. Some of these subdivisions ran consecutively, some operated in parallel, and others intertwined or branched off in variously divergent directions." This preface is relevant to Schaefer's own collection of materials because the "intertwined" nature of Cirrus itself, as well as its roots in Schaefer and Langmuir's previous work, sometimes made it difficult for the archivist to separate Project Cirrus documents from materials that related to cloud seeding efforts but were not strictly part of the work done under the government contract that defined Project Cirrus.