The greater portion of Purves' papers consists of research materials from his undergraduate and post-graduate period. These include lecture notes in natural philosophy and chemistry (1921-1923), laboratory notes on methylated sugars (1923-1924), extraction of glucose by yeast (1929-1931) and carbohydrate analysis (1929-1930) and reports of experiments at the U.S. National Institute of Health. Teaching files contain lecture notes for his courses in organic chemistry (1957-1965) and correspondence with John R. Platt regarding a new textbook of elementary organic chemistry.