Materials depict the celebrations of Howard Hughes's circumnavigation flight in 1938. Along with a crew consisting of Harry Connor, Tom Thurlow, Richard Stoddart, and Ed Lund, Hughes flew the Super Electra on a global circumnavigation flight. On July 10, 1938, Hughes and the crew departed Floyd Bennett Field in New York and flew to Paris, France, Moscow, Russia, Omsk, Russia, Yakutsk, Russia, Fairbanks, Alaska, and Minneapolis, Minnesota before landing back in New York on July 14. The photographs primarily depict the parades thrown for Hughes after completion of the flight. The photographs also depict Hughes and his crew meeting with New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at New York City Hall, the National Press Association, and crowds of onlookers who attended the plane's landings in various cities.

Materials depict Howard Hughes during various ventures from 1930 to 1950. The photographs depict Trans World Airlines planes, the crash site of Hughes's Sikorsky S-43 in Lake Mead, Nevada, aircraft construction, portraits, unidentified aircraft, events, Hughes during the production of the film The Outlaw, and Hughes speaking with members of the press.