The Harold J. Morgan World War II Collection is a small collection consisting of visual and textual materials primarily documenting Morgan's service as a machinist during the Second World War with Douglas Aircraft Company's Project 19 in North Africa in 1942-1943.

The textual materials include Morgan's diary, correspondence, military records, vital records, and some printed ephemera. The diary and correspondence are of particular interest as they provide detailed accounts of Morgan's activities with Douglas Aircraft Company. The diary begins in April 1942 when he leaves his home in Rochester, New York, and continues through November 1943. The entries are nearly daily at first, but become more sparse toward the end of his deployment. The logs record time spent in New York City before leaving abroad, his first day on base (July 23, 1942), and from there descriptions of daily activities. Morgan writes about some aspects of the work at the base, the weather, getting paid, getting sick and injured, leisure time, and about receiving letters from his wife. Some entries describe the Italian prisoners-of-war on base as well as some English and American refugees. He occasionally writes of local Eritreans and visiting the nearby town of Dekemhare. The May 8, 1943, entry celebrates the end of the war in Africa, and the next entry from November 1943 describes project activities ending and returning home. While the entries overall do not provide highly detailed accounts of the repair projects he worked on, there are some entries mentioning Curtiss P-40s, Consolidated PBYs and other planes. Overall the logs provide an overview of life for the workers stationed in Eritrea assigned to this project. While many of the entries written in the diary take the form of letters to his wife, Helen, the collection also includes a file of correspondence containing the airmail letters that Morgan did send to her while away. Starting in May 1942 and spanning through July 1942, these letters are similar to the diary in that they describe activities for that time period, but they also provide more description on his feelings about war and being away from home.

The minimal amount of military records present includes documentation of Morgan's short stint of active duty with the U.S. Army in 1944 and then his transfer to the Enlisted Reserve Corps to work in industry. A few documents provide record of Morgan's death in 1952. Some printed ephemera in the collection includes a holiday greeting from 1943 from the Manager of Project 19, a certificate acknowledging Morgan's service with the project, and the original mailing tube from the Douglas Company for the certificate. Also, present are war ration booklets, stamps, tokens, and pouch for Morgan, his wife and his daughter.

A small number of black-and-white photographs are in the collection but are of significant interest. One photograph is a formal portrait of Morgan in uniform. The remaining ten prints are snapshots of Morgan, his Douglas co-workers, and scenes from the Douglas base in Africa in 1943.