Incoming and outgoing manuscript and typescript letters, carbons, telegrams, and postcards generated during Fenton's career. The largest series in the collection, Series I is arranged alphabetically by correspondent's name and then chronologically within each folder. Unidentified correspondence has been filed as "Unidentified" and is arranged chronologically. Enclosed manuscripts have been removed from this series and placed in Series III or IV as appropriate. As with the reprints, a photocopy of the title page was filed with the original letter. The bulk of this series covers the years 1930 to 1993.

Correspondents include anthropologists, government officials, students, publishers, Native Americans, and interested amateur anthropologists. Among the topics covered in this series are: Iroquois ceremonies and customs, relocation and administration of the Museum of the American Indian, and Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology. For lists of correspondence related to construction of Kinzua Dam and to wampum belts, see the folders labeled "Kinzua Dam" and "Wampum" in Series II. Material relevant to Fenton's work for the United States Indian Service is filed under "United States. Department of the Interior." Letters of reference are filed under the name of the person who is the subject of the letter. For lists of correspondence with colleagues about Fenton's publications, see Series III under the publications' titles.

Also included in this series is correspondence from several Native Americans detailing reservation life, customs, and ceremonies.

Principal correspondents include:

Minutes, reports, agenda, conference abstracts, bulletins, legal documents, calendars, and newspaper clippings, arranged alphabetically by title. The earliest item in this series is a photocopy of an 1846 library catalog from the Thomas Indian School. The Museum of the American Indian files, which include minutes and agenda from the period when Fenton was an active board member, account for a significant portion of Series II. Fenton's reports on travel and work completed as a community worker for the U.S. Department of the Interior appear in this series as well. Of interest is the material on the construction of Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River, and on the plans to establish Iroquoia, a tourist center to provide an historically accurate re-creation of an Iroquois community. Also of note are the wampum files which contain material on the ownership of numerous wampum belts at the Museum of the American Indian, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, and the New York State Museum. Copies of the title pages of reprints by and about Horatio Hale are filed under "Hale" in the series.

Material gathered during a project undertaken by the Newberry Library to compile a documentary history of the Iroquois. Involved in the project were Fenton, Francis P. Jennings, and Mary A. Druke Becker, among others. This series contains material that was compiled by the project, including photocopies of historical documents, such as treaties, deeds, and minutes of meetings with Iroquois leaders. There are two folders of project reports ("Iroquois Documentary History Project Reports") written by Becker, Fenton, and Jennings. Correspondence involving this project has been filed in Series I, in the files of Becker and Jennings.

Fenton's typewritten and handwritten drafts, and outlines, preparatory notes and research for articles, books, reviews, lectures, and tributes to colleagues. This series is arranged by title. Cross-references appear for correspondence, photographs, and reprints which appear in this series. The earliest materials in this series are research items gathered for The Customs of the American Indian Compared with the Customs of Primitive Times by Father Joseph François Lafitau, including photocopies of several journals from the early 1700s. Fenton's earliest manuscripts were written in 1931: "Outdoor Wisdom," a review of William Hillcourt's The Boy Campers, and "Thoreau on Education," a paper written when Fenton was a student at Dartmouth. There is also a 1932 paper, "The Connecticut Algonkians," which was written for George P. Murdock's course in ethnology at Yale. Of note are the drafts, notes, and research for The False Faces of the Iroquois. "Social and Ceremonial Organization of the Six Nations Reserve in 1910," a proposal for publication of Alexander A. Goldenweiser's notebooks, is interesting in the way Fenton chooses to organize the material. Also of note is Fenton's translation of the Deganawidah epic as it was conveyed to Goldenweiser. Several drafts of "Mohawk," co-authored by Elisabeth Tooker, appear in this series as well. Materials for several of Fenton's articles on Horatio Hale are filed under "Hale."

Articles, notes, and papers written by colleagues and students of Fenton. This series is arranged alphabetically by author and then by title. Authors with three or more manuscripts in this series include Raymond D. Fogelson, Francis P. Jennings, Gertrude Prokosch Kurath, and Elisabeth Tooker. Also included are photocopies of many of Alexander A. Goldenweiser's Iroquois Notebooks containing Goldenweiser's research which was sponsored by the Anthropological Division of the National Museum of Canada in the early 1900s (Fenton's unpublished version of Goldenweiser's notebooks is contained in Series III under the title "Social and Ceremonial Organization on the Six Nations Reserve in 1910"). A photocopy of Edward Cornplanter's handwritten version of the Handsome Lake Code is also contained in Series IV.

Loose notes, notebooks, and card files. The notes and notebooks are arranged by folder title and include the subjects of Seneca social and political organization, plants and medicine, song texts, and Seneca genealogies. Series V also includes six card files: "Ethnography of North America I," "Ethnography of North America II and Oceania + Australia," "Herbarium: Allegany Seneca Systematics," "Iroquois Medicines (F. Waugh Waugh)," "Sources and References in Lafitau / Political Anthropology," and "Materia Medica and Seneca Place Names." The card files provide a bibliography for those areas of study, as well as abstracts and quotations of source material. Notes which were too large to fit in the card file boxes were placed in folders and filed with the notes and notebooks. A photocopy of the first sheet of notes was placed in the card file with a cross reference. Similarly, photographs were removed to Series VI, and photocopies were placed in the card file with a cross reference.

Photographs, both positive and negative, of Fenton's activities while in the field, artifacts, and false faces, and friends. The majority of the negatives in this series document Fenton's field work in the 1930s and 1940s. Fenton assigned a number to each negative and maintained an index which is arranged by negative number; this index is filed in Series VI under "Negatives." There are few prints of Fenton's field work, with the exception of his friends and informants, including Simeon Gibson, Helen Harris, Henry Redeye, Howard Sky, and Jones Snow. Photographs of false faces account for most of the prints. The false face material falls into two sections according to its original order. The first section, filed under "False Faces," retains Fenton's original distinctions by type of false face (e.g. "smiling," "spoon mouth blower"). Additional false face photographs removed from Series I-V have been titled "False Faces" but have not been interfiled with Fenton's original files. The other false face photographs were originally filed with the drafts of The False Faces of the Iroquois. This section includes information on printing, reduction or enlargement, captions, and figures; these prints have been filed under The False Faces of the Iroquois. Series VI also includes several photographs of the wampum transfer from the Museum of the American Indian to the Six Nations Reserve in 1988. For additional prints of several of Fenton's negatives, see the George S. Snyderman Papers, Coll. No. 51.