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Since most of the series are mainly evidential to Sunderland's professional life, researchers interested in a broader perspective will find the Biographical Materials of interest, although the documentation is limited a handful of newspaper clippings and photographs, several volumes of travel journals, and papers written in his youth. The series also includes seven folders of personal correspondence -- mainly letters from family and friends while Sunderland was a student at the University of Michigan. A more complete view of the Sunderland family as a whole can be found in the collection of Sunderland-Safford family papers. This collection, which includes the papers of Edson Sunderland's sister, Gertrude Sunderland Safford, includes extensive family correspondence. In addition, researchers should note that there is extensive background information in Alice Sunderland Wethy's A Genealogical-Biographical Compilation of the Sunderland and Broadhead Families (Bentley Historical Library call number DB/2/S958/W539/v.2).

The Research Material and Reports series illuminates Sunderland's intellectual process as he undertook projects large and small. Most of these files contain notes and collected material he carefully compiled for reference. Included are drafts, surveys and research material, many of which eventually became published reports, such as his study of the justice of the peace system and drafts prepared for the United States Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules for Civil Procedure.