The collection consists of two boxes: the first box holds nine diaries and an account book; the second box consists of builder's agreements, primarily for yachts and boats designed by Morgan Barney, plus some school notebooks belonging to his son, John "Peter" Barney and other miscellaneous papers.

The diaries cover distinctly different periods in Morgan Barney's life, and because of this, give a somewhat disjointed picture, but they do show that he was a talented yacht designer, a vociferous reader of all types of subject matter from the classics to the latest technology, and a complicated personality who shifted from moments of inventive ideas and enthusiasms to times of deepest depression.