The Daysh Papers include administrative material generated by the North East Industrial and Development Association, correspondence, cuttings, reports and papers covering such subjects as agriculture, production, development and employment. It includes Geological Survey of Great Britain Wartime pamphlets, Whitby Survey photographs, several reports on water resources and some material relating to the Far East, for example, a paper (with maps) on the History of railway enterprise in China.The collection also includes a draft article by Professor G.H.J. Daysh: The development of the university in relation to the development of the City, the North-East, and in some aspects, of the country as a whole. There are also many historic pamphlets, predominantly from the Eighteenth Century but also some printed in the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries, such as An argument concerning the militia (1762) and several sermons. Although Professor Daysh (1901-1987) had been the Head of the Geography Department at Newcastle University (then King's College), the papers were given to the Library by Tyne and Wear Archives.

There are over 150 maps in Special Collections. In the main, they are pre-twentieth century and cover areas in north-eastern England.