Correspondence, memos, reports, course materials, newsletters, articles, reprints, computer manuals, and other materials pertaining to McCarthy's research and his teaching at Stanford and MIT. Correspondents include Forest Baskett, Donald Knuth, Serge Lang, Joshua Lederberg, Douglas Lenat, Donald Michie, Hans Moravec, Zohar Manna, Aaron Sloman, and Masahiko Sato. Also included are correspondence, reprints, programs, notes, and articles from his work with Russian computer scientists, 1958-78.

John McCarthy, after earning his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton in 1951, taught at Stanford, Dartmouth, and MIT. In 1962 he returned to Stanford as professor of computer science. From 1965 to 1980 he was organizer and director of Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1987 he was named the first Charles M. Pigott professor in the School of Engineering. McCarthy invented the computer-programming language LISP in 1958 and the concept of time-sharing on large computers in the late 50s and early 60s. In 1990 he received the National Medal of Science for helping to create the science of artificial intelligence.