The Helen Raitt Papers provide substantial information concerning the Capricorn Expedition, Tofua Press, and her published manuscripts, and some information concerning activities in her later life. The majority of her papers fall between the dates of 1952-1954 and 1973-1976. There is little information concerning her family or her life before her marriage to Russell Raitt, and little about her work with the UCSD Library or with Oceanids. Additional correspondence for the years 1946-1969, including correspondence and interview notes for Scripps Institution of Oceanography: First Fifty Years, can be found in the SIO Biographical Files.

Helen Hill Raitt was born March 28, 1905 to Helen Collier Hill and James H. Hill in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in the historic East Wynyate House in Pasadena. She graduated in 1927 with a degree in literature from Pomona College, where she was a fellow student and friend of Roger Revelle. She married Charles J. Biddle and bore three children: W.(William) Craig Biddle, later a U.S. senator, Charles J. Biddle, Jr. ("Kayo"), and Alison Biddle (Gist). She married again to Russell Raitt in 1935 and bore her fourth child, Martha Raitt (Harrison).

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