The collection consists of writings and speeches, photographs, correspondence, and printed matter, relating to Joseph S. Marriott's career in the Civil Aeronautics Administration and its predecessor, the Bureau of Air Commerce, with special reference to the states of California, Hawaii, Arizona, and Utah. The collection also includes awards and memorials, biographical materials, consulting project materials, newspaper clippings, postal covers, publications, and scrapbooks.

Award and memorial materails relate to and include Marriott's receipt of the Legion of Merit in 1946; a proposal for the Colonel Joseph S. Marriott Unit Achievement Award, to be presented by the Air Reserve Association, 1955; a resolution by the Harvey Mudd College Board of Trustees, 1978; and the induction of Marriott into the International Forest of Friendship, Atchison, Kansas, in 1997. Biographical materials include Marriott's autobiography, covering the years 1895-1945. The consulting project materials relate to a project Marriott undertook with Pertamina (Indonesia National Energy Company), Djkarta, under the auspices of International Executive Service Corps, New York. The correspondence consists of a carbon copy of a humorous letter from 1947, signed by A. O. Oeland, purportedly relating to his experiences as a student pilot, and an exchange in 1958 between Marriott and Jacqueline Cochran Odlum concerning a proposed visit by Marriott to the Odlum ranch. The newspaper clippings relate primarily to Marriott's career in the Civil Aeronautics Administration, both before and after World War II; they also include some items relating to family matters. The photographs relate to air navigation aids, primarily radio towers and beacons, 1946-1956, in the western states (in particular, California, Hawaii, Arizona, and Utah) that Marriott supervised as CAA Regional Manager. They also include copies of photographs of the 1910 Los Angeles (Dominguez Hills) Air Meet, two aerial photographs of San Diego Bay (1919 and 1951), and a few personal photographs. The postal covers relate to first flights on newly opened commercial airline routes, primarily by Transworld Air Lines in the United States, but including the first Transpacific air mail service from Fiji to the United States in 1941; the first exploratory polar flight by Scandinavian Airline System from Los Angeles to Copenhagen in 1951 (and the first flight of regular service on the same route in 1954); the first flight of the U.S. Air Force over the South Pole, 1956; and the first flight of American Airlines air mail jet service between Los Angeles and New York, 1959. Postal covers from the 1970s and 1980s honor the Skylab 4 launch, 1973; the space shuttle orbiter rollout, 1976; and the launches of space shuttle Columbia STS-1, STS-2, and STS-3), 1981-1982. Publications and printed materials include a photocopy of the first printed Air Commerce Regulations (1927); a copy of the June 1929 issue of Aviation magazine; the Society of Airway Pioneers 1980 Yearbook and Directory, and an undated, unsigned, carbon copy single sheet, "... And God Created Louisiana". The scrapbooks consist of 2 volumes of photocopies of photographs, certificates, newspaper clippings, awards, and other materials relating to Marriott's career (the original materials remain with the Marriott family); approximately half the first volume comprises a photocopy of the official program for the Bendix Trophy Race, held at Union Air Termninal, Burbank, California, in 1934. Marriott's writings and speeches primarily concern government interest in, and regulation of, civil aviation, particularly in the 1920's and 1930's.