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The majority of the administrative files consist of correspondence; as director of research and then overall director of the ASRC, Schaefer was in constant contact with administrators of SUNY Albany, local colleagues, and other professionals in the field. There are also documents dealing with budget issues, grant applications, conferences, and operation of the N.S.I. field stations.

As director of the Loomis School activities, and ultimately as director of research at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York, Albany, Schaefer kept records pertaining to the operation of the program. There are many correspondence files; some are between Schaefer and colleagues while others are between Schaefer and the students from the summer program. Numerous students kept in touch with Schaefer well beyond the years that they participated in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, and many of them became successful professionals in their own right.

In addition to serving on the Education Committee of the American Meteorological Society, Schaefer also served on the general council of the AMS. This subseries features documents on the AMS educational films project, correspondence, a few AMS bulletins, and some programs from annual AMS meetings. Although the files do not directly relate to the founding of the Loomis School/NSI, the AMS was responsible for the founding of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the Loomis School in 1959, and the documentation of educational programs found in this subseries foreshadows the creation of those summer sessions.

The inspiration for Schaefer's work with cloud seeding began during his experiments with Irving Langmuir during World War II. At that time they were under contract with the military for other weather-related reasons, but their research led them to wonder about the possibilities of controlling weather beyond military needs. Schaefer accomplished some of his most important foundational work with cloud seeding in 1946, before General Electric joined in another contract with the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army Signal Corps. These records document some of Schaefer's initial work with cloud seeding, before the official birth of Project Cirrus. Researchers will also find about a dozen files on Project Blowdown, a cloud seeding operation conducted in Honduras to aid the United Fruit Company.

Schaefer's correspondence files are arranged alphabetically by subject. They include letters sent and received by Schaefer as well as some to and from Irving Langmuir. Schaefer also retained letters that were to and from others at General Electric but carbon copied to him. While most of Schaefer's letters came to the archives grouped in large, general batches, some were retained separate from the larger groups. The archivist kept that arrangement, which is why certain letters are foldered individually or in very small groups while the majority of this subseries is simply categorized as "general".

Since Schaefer was Munitalp's director of research, and Munitalp participated in meteorological projects internationally as well as domestically, Schaefer was constantly in contact with associates all over the globe. The substantial amount of correspondence that he kept from his Munitalp years shows the greatly increased administrative role he held in comparison to his General Electric days.

The correspondence in this subseries is a mix of letters received by Schaefer as well as carbon copies of letters sent by him or his secretary, Alice Klopfer. The archivist believes that the filing system used in this subseries was created by Ms. Klopfer and has been preserved accordingly. Most folders are titled by the name of the person or company for whom Schaefer was consulting, but there are also files titled simply by letter of the alphabet—these contain correspondence from sources that were not numerous enough to warrant their own folders, and are identified within each folder by subject.

The items in this subseries were foldered by specific subject in some cases, or simply by a letter (ex. "M"). The latter would have a mix of persons, places, and topics identified within. This system could be a legacy from Alice Klopfer, the secretary who handled Schaefer's administrative needs for his consulting work.

The Desert Research Institute, or D.R.I., was established in 1959 as part of the University of Nevada (currently called the Nevada System of Higher Education). Their mission calls for a blend of traditional, basic research with interdisciplinary, applied research methods. Although Schaefer did not have a hand in creating the D.R.I., he did act as a consultant for them during his time at the ASRC/SUNY. His Natural Sciences Institute also expanded to include a field station at the D.R.I., so this subseries is a blend of Schaefer's consulting materials as well as applications and curriculum planning for the N.S.I. summer programs.

This subseries documents Vincent Schaefer's interests in the construction, history and preservation of Dutch barns. Although the majority of the records are from Schaefer's retirement during the late 1980s and early 1990s when he had significant time to devote to this pursuit, researching and surveying Dutch barns was a lifelong hobby. For example, there are images of barns from the 1930s and a newspaper clipping discussing a planned lecture by Schaefer on Dutch barns from January 1939. Schaefer was very active in the Dutch Barn Preservation Society and received a Preservation League of New York State Award in 1991 for restoration and protection of the Greater Wemp Barn. This multi-year effort to save and ultimately relocate the Greater Wemp Barn is well-documented in this subseries. Other materials of interest are several volumes of Dutch Barn Research Miscellany, a publication edited by Schaefer, articles on barns written by Schaefer, background information on barns in New York compiled by Schaefer, especially those in the Capital District, and numerous slides and photographs.

Schaefer saw research opportunities via the ASRC that promised to have national and even international implications as environmental concerns became more public in the 1960s and 1970s. He was engaged frequently to speak about his research, both to other professionals and to "everyday" people who might be interested in learning more about issues like acid rain or solar energy. He also participated on committees and commissions who were given the responsibility of investigating scientific dilemmas of the day and presenting findings to the government. This subseries contains materials from those speaking engagements, trips, and committees.

As the Atmospheric Sciences Program flourished at the Loomis School, Schaefer and his colleagues decided to expand the students' educational opportunities by offering the summer session in multiple locations across the United States. While Schaefer, as director, would make appearances and coordinate the activities at each site—called field stations—the day-to-day running of each one depended on the talent of the highly reputable scientists Schaefer hired for that purpose. Initially, the field stations were located in New York (Whiteface Mountain), Colorado (Boulder), and Arizona (Flagstaff). Eventually, more sites were added, including Socorro, New Mexico and Rensselaerville, New York. Schaefer's contacts from General Electric and Munitalp played a helpful role in establishing field stations and attracting accomplished staff members for the summer program.

This subseries contains materials on specific flights, though the availability of data ranges from a single page for some flights to multiple pages with photos for other flights. Each one is labeled by flight number, where it took place, what operation was performed, and on what date. There are also files on research efforts that took place on the ground and in the lab, including charts, diagrams, weather observations, and research notebooks. Photographs include particular flights, most of which feature aerial cloud views, but there are also general photos that were not labeled by Schaefer or his colleagues.

These letters were not previously sorted out by Schaefer before he donated them to the archive, and like the correspondence in subseries #1, they span many years and have their source in many of Schaefer's professional and personal activities. To expedite progress for researchers, the materials have been organized by year.

This subseries is comprised of various research data retained by Schaefer that were not filed specifically with cloud seeding or ice and snow research. These are the notes, graphs, drawings, and photographs of experiments that supported later discoveries in his larger projects. Notes and photos in this subseries include subjects such as surface tension, monomolecular layers, smoke generation, fog, uses of calgon, and electron microscopy. Also of note are his observations on precipitation and precipitation static, which he worked on with Irving Langmuir during World War II. While the bulk of the notes are Schaefer's own, there are also papers that belonged to Langmuir and various other scientists who shared observations with Schaefer.

General research essentially covers all documents not dealing with Project Skyfire. Since Munitalp's purpose was to aid other organizations with their meteorological experiments, it had many different projects under its wing. Schaefer's papers in this area deal mainly with jet stream and cloud studies and weather modification. One specific example of a new weather modification experiment was Project Shower, which took Schaefer to Hawaii to work with the Pineapple Institute. Some of the files are reminiscent of his work at General Electric since his fascination with particle studies continued well beyond his days in the Knolls Research Laboratory. There are documents and photographs dealing with clouds, precipitation, and atmospheric particles, including some from Mount Washington since Schaefer continued to foster a working relationship with the lab there. Time lapse films of clouds and cloud formations were also a ground-breaking aspect of Schaefer's work with Munitalp.

Although Schaefer had administrative duties as director of research, as well as overall director of the ASRC in later years, he still made as much time as possible for conducting his own research. In addition to experiments carried out in New York's Capital Region, he oversaw research at the Whiteface Mountain Field Station and Observatory as well as Flagstaff, Arizona, and led highly successful expeditions in the Yellowstone National Park. His fascination with particle studies continued during his ASRC years, leading to crucial investigations of carcinogens, acid rain, effects of particulate matter on global weather, aerosol studies, and much more. He also took great interest in alternative energy sources, solar energy specifically. Of course, cloud studies and ice-forming nuclei also remained a passion of Schaefer's. This subseries mainly consists of Schaefer's own investigations into those kinds of topics and offers a glimpse of his own notes, calculations, and observations on the subjects of interest to him.

As a life-long resident of Schenectady County, Vincent Schaefer was very vocal about preserving the purity of the land and water of the Great Flats Aquifer which provided the drinking water for the majority of the county and once served as very fertile farmland.

The formation and behavior of snow and ice crystals were a lifelong interest of Schaefer's, and in his time at General Electric he was able to focus on the subject during the World War II years as ice related to the safety of U.S. Air Force planes. Schaefer and Irving Langmuir's interest in that topic grew as a result of their World War II-era contract work with the military, and the experiments they conducted after the war's end led directly to their Project Cirrus contract in 1947—an undertaking so extensive that their work in that area merited its own series in this collection. Much of their foundational work in snow and ice composition and behavior was grounded in observations and experiments conducted on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Schaefer discovered during this time that ice crystals and snowflakes could be captured and observed using Formvar plastic. Using this method, he documented very specific data about ice and snow before creating some of the first replicas of specific snowflake shapes. The work of Schaefer and his colleagues regarding ice research includes handwritten notes, drawings, charts, photographs, reports, and correspondence specific to ice, snow, and Mount Washington.

This subseries features materials related to history in New York, especially near the Capital District, and archeological research, two of Vincent Schaefer's important personal interests. Schaefer was a vice president and trustee of the Schenectady County Historical Society and wrote for the organization's Milestone newsletter. He also helped found the Van Epps-Hartley chapter of the New York State Archeological Association, which was formally organized in 1931, and later served as chapter president. There is significant correspondence about the chapter's founding and several articles authored by Schaefer about archeological sites and artifacts in this subseries. There also is correspondence between Schaefer and New York State Archeologist Arthur C. Parker, then museum director at the City of Rochester, New York's Municipal Museum.

In late 1974 Vincent Schaefer began conducting air quality studies in the Shawangunk Moutains of New York, located 90 miles north of New York City, as part of his research at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. This was his first visit to the Mohonk Preserve, then known as The Mohonk Trust.

The Vincent Schaefer personal subseries comprises material spanning his life and career and pertains only to personal interests outside the realms of his atmospheric and prescribed research ventures. This subseries contains his schedules and itineraries, along with Schaefer's personal logs from 1947 through 1993. Along with Schaefer's own autobiography Twenty Years at Langmuir University there are timelines, resumes, and lists of works published, all created by Schaefer.

The photographs in this subseries date from Schaefer's teenage years all the way through his retirement after he left the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. Having a love and deep respect for the outdoors from a young age, Schaefer participated in organized activities like the Mohawk Valley Hiking Club, but he also incorporated spontaneous outdoor adventures into his busy schedule whenever he could. Sometimes this meant a day or afternoon exploring areas in and around the Capital Region; other times it meant taking time to explore while he was away on business. His work for General Electric, Munitalp, and the State University at Albany/ASRC (not to mention his extensive consulting) offered ample opportunities to venture into mountain ranges, deserts, plains, valleys, and forests to pursue environmental studies that were of interest to him.

In addition to traditional photos, the photographs subseries also contains negatives and photo slides. Topics include the environment, chemistry, electrostatics, ice and snow, and world travel. While some of the images in this subseries are directly related to Schaefer's professional work, others are likely derived from extracurricular activities he engaged in while taking photographs for business purposes. Schaefer never did like to let an opportunity go by to explore things that were of interest to him. Some topics, like the Yellowstone Field Expedition, exist as their own subseries elsewhere. In the interests of preserving original order, however, those images were not pulled from this subseries.

Just as Schaefer's best-known work at General Electric was Project Cirrus, one of his most important jobs with Munitalp was Project Skyfire. Schaefer became familiar with the problem of lightning-induced forest fires while he was still working at G.E., but it wasn't until he transferred to Munitalp that he could give the issue direct attention. Working alongside Harry Gisborne, chief of fire research in Missoula, Montana, Schaefer researched the use of cloud seeding techniques in changing patterns of lightning storms in the northwestern United States. This subseries contains the data, charts, maps, and photographs from this project.

These are the articles and reports dealing specifically with Project Cirrus-related matters. Some are direct reports to the government regarding progress made while others were published in research journals for purposes of letting the outside world know what the Cirrus team was accomplishing. The subseries includes some drafts as well as the finished products. Researchers might find General Electric's "Project Cirrus: The Story of Cloud Seeding" (Nov. 1952) and Barrington Havens' "History of Project Cirrus" (1952) to be particularly useful summaries.

This subseries includes reports and publications by Schaefer, his colleagues at the ASRC, and colleagues from other institutions who worked closely with Schaefer and occasionally collaborated with the ASRC. Names from the latter group will sound familiar from Schaefer's consulting materials, such as Wendell Mordy and Paul MacCready. Topics range from annual ASRC reports, to solar energy work, to particle studies and more. Some documents are official reprints of articles while others are handwritten manuscripts or typescripts.

This subseries is devoted entirely to articles and reports from Schaefer's Munitalp years. Materials cover a range of topics including Project Skyfire, jet stream studies, cloud seeding, particle studies, and research on the relationship between environmental factors and the weather. Since this subseries is comparatively smaller than the reports and publications for General Electric, works by Schaefer and others are mixed together. The files are arranged chronologically, then alphabetically by article/report title if necessary. Folder titles note the author of each work. For Schaefer's writings, the archivist noted if there is a manuscript included with the published copy.

This last subseries contains official reports by Schaefer on the activities of the Atmospheric Sciences Program and records its progress as it transforms into the Natural Sciences Institute at the State University of New York, Albany. Some of the reports cover the summer program as a whole, while others focus specifically on field station issues. There are also articles published by current and former students of the program as well as some articles published by Schaefer himself.

Vincent Schaefer welcomed his colleagues' professional input and used their published works for reference as he refined his own studies. The articles and reports in this subseries are a sampling of findings by scientists like Irving Langmuir, Katharine Blodgett, Bernard Vonnegut, and more. This subseries also includes magazine and brochure types of publications such as G.E.'s Adventures Ahead, booklets about Association Island, and occasional G.E. newsletters. Please note that many of the articles are reprints, which are reflected in the folder dates.

As with the work of his own General Electric co-workers, Schaefer collected articles and reports by colleagues outside of his own institution as well. These are an assortment of publications relating directly to Schaefer's own work in areas like surface chemistry, ice/snow studies and cloud seeding as well as peripheral interests in the science world that happened to catch his attention. Please note that many of the articles are reprints, which are reflected in the folder dates.

These are reports and articles written by Vincent Schaefer that did not directly cover work done through Project Cirrus. Many are from his early days at General Electric when he was still a research assistant, covering topics such as surface chemistry. Any articles co-written by Schaefer and his colleagues are included in this subseries. Some articles and reports do discuss early cloud seeding issues but do not appear to be directly related to Project Cirrus. When in doubt, the archivist looked for credits or acknowledgements to the U.S. military to help determine how a certain article or report should be categorized. Please note that many of the articles are reprints, which are reflected in the folder dates. Some folders also include manuscripts of the published articles or reports, which is indicated in the folder title.

Comprising the years 1934 to 1954, Vincent Schaefer's research notebooks are bound volumes containing handwritten observations, formulas, and drawings from his scientific endeavors. They comprise their own subseries partly due to the fragile nature of the bindings, covers, and paper itself, but also because the nature of the bound books prevents their being divided among the categories of snow and ice research, cloud seeding, general research, etc. Researchers are encouraged to consult these notebooks for information on Schaefer's World War II projects, cloud seeding, surface chemistry, and more. Please note that Schaefer kept two sets of notebooks from 1940 to 1943—in addition to the larger hardback notebooks, he also kept a set of small softcover books that dealt with very specific topics such as smoke filters and artificial fog. He also used some of the smaller-size notebooks for scientific observations from his own home.

Schaefer retained many notebooks kept by the students who participated in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, as well as some of their final papers that detail the projects they worked on for eight weeks. Encouraged by Schaefer to do self-directed experiments, the students kept logs of observations and measurements to aid them in their final reports to staff and peers. A few also sketched illustrations to accompany their notes. Some of the papers in this subseries are final reports of the students' experiments while others are thoughts and reflections on the experience as a whole.

The Schaefer subject files are a collection of brochures, notes, and other ephemera that have enduring value but do not belong in other categories such as cloud seeding or snow and ice research. These files include research notes from sources other than General Electric; scientists and entrepreneurs frequently exchanged results of their work with one another, but to avoid confusion, the work of Schaefer and other G.E. scientists can be found in the next subseries while informal research notes and observations by others are located here.

This subseries includes files documenting Vincent Schaefer's varied environmental and outdoor activities that are not associated with a particular organization, such as the Huyck Preserve or Mohonk, or a specific legal effort like the fight to preserve the Great Flats Aquifer. Materials include maps, correspondence, photographs, draft manuscripts, and news clippings. Of interest are folders devoted to the Mohawk Valley Hiking Club, which Schaefer helped found, and his vision for the Long Path, which he saw as a trail for hikers stretching from northern New Jersey through the Adirondacks passing landmarks along the way. Schaefer published articles in this subseries as an individual who loved, studied and appreciated nature, and not as a scientist for General Electric, Munitalp, or the ASRC. Therefore articles in this series span his lifetime. Researchers should note his "Five Rivers Rambles" ongoing series for the Knickerbocker News, written during the early 1970s. In his column, Schaefer explored timely topics, such as air pollution, but also area locations of natural beauty and wonder, including Gore Mountain, the Helderbergs, and Pine Plains.

The subject files feature documents and photographs directly related to Project Cirrus, but not to specific flights. Photos include equipment, precipitation, general cloud photos, and Schaefer appearing at functions during the Cirrus years. Researchers will also find some data on cloud seeding endeavors elsewhere, such as California and Sydney, Australia. Correspondence files do exist within this subseries, but researchers might also want to consult the correspondence files in Series #1 for the years 1947 to 1952 as it is likely that Schaefer kept Cirrus letters with his other General Electric correspondence. Other documents include news clippings, bulletins from meteorological conferences, and weather radar reports from MIT.

The subject files feature a variety of materials that supplement Schaefer's Munitalp research documents, such as ephemera from some of his many travels, conference brochures, and weather research activities of groups not affiliated with Munitalp. This subseries also includes administrative files such as personnel information, grant writing endeavors, and budgeting, which are reflections of Schaefer's role as director of research. There are also photographs of Schaefer and colleagues, non-Skyfire research projects, travels in and out of the United States, and more generic subjects such as research equipment.

The subject files contain documents with enduring value that do not necessarily fit the other ASRC subseries. Researchers will find brochures and schedules from conferences, newsletters from other organizations, and updates on research projects that the ASRC was not officially collaborating with but still held interest for Schaefer.

The documents in this subseries are arranged by name of the organization, institution, or person with whom Schaefer was consulting, followed by a brief indication of the topic(s) within. Schaefer consulted for a wide variety of places, including Boeing; Philip Morris; Arthur D. Little, Inc.; the University of Nevada; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and many more. Files include a variety of items such as meeting minutes and reports from organizations Schaefer was working with, company brochures and newsletters, itineraries and vouchers from Schaefer's extensive travels, contract agreements, and correspondence that was not already filed with the letters in subseries #1.

Located in Rensselaerville, New York, the widow and heirs of local businessman E.N. Huyck established the Edmund Niles Preserve and Biological Research Station in his memory in 1931. This non-profit organization remains dedicated to preservation, education and research and to offering visitors a tranquil setting.

Among Schaefer's most successful ventures via the ASRC was the Yellowstone Field Expeditions. In 1960, Schaefer met with National Park Service members in Wyoming's Grand Tetons to discuss the possibility of leading scientific studies in Yellowstone National Park. Specifically, he was interested in the behavior of supercooled clouds that form in the area of Old Faithful. Clouds and condensation nuclei were still a fascination of Schaefer's long after his G.E. days, and he foresaw many different kinds of scientists—including cloud physicists—gathering at Yellowstone once a year to devote themselves to conducting experiments, making observations, and comparing outcomes.