Hanson and his wife Louise lived on the island of Rapa in 1963 and 1964 while he did his dissertation research. Central to this collection is the typed field journals from Hanson's research, which had at one time been hardbound in several volumes at around 2,500 pages long. Unbound in order to be scanned, these pages document his highly detailed daily observations of Rapan culture as he witnessed it and have been foldered in their original order. Directly after the field journal files are subject files arranged alphabetically.

Although much of this collection is related specifically to the island and culture of Rapa, no effort has been made to re-arrange materials, or separate materials related to Tahiti or to the Maori. The collection therefore consists of a single series regarding Hanson's Polynesian research, with oversize materials--including maps and newspaper articles--stored separately.