The papers are arranged chronologically in the following sections corresponding to Nathan's career. R.H. indicates that these papers are kept in Rhodes House Library:
- Diaries, 1881-1939
- Note books, 1876-1939
- Private correspondence, 1868-1939
- Royal Engineers' School, Chatham, 1880-4
- Sudan Expedition, 1884-5 R.H.
- Lushai Expedition, 1889-94
- Royal Engineers, 1894-5
- Colonial Defence Committee, 1896-8
- Governor of Sierra Leone, 1899-1900 R.H.
- Governor of the Gold Coast, 1900-3 R.H.
- Governor of Hong Kong, 1903-7 R.H.
- Governor of Natal, 1907-9 R.H.
- Secretary to the General Post Office
- Pacific Cable Board, 1910-15
- Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, 1911-14
- Committee on the transfer of stamp manufacture and distribution, 1911-14
- Royal Commission on the Civil Service, 1912
- Committee on Crown Employment, 1912-13
- Inland Revenue vote, 1913
- Committee on the Civil Employment of ex-soldiers, 1914-19
- Under-secretary for Ireland, 1914-16
- London Defences, 1916
- Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions, 1916-19
- Special Grants Committee, 1917-20
- Overseas Settlement Committee, 1919-20 R.H.
- Governor of Queensland, 1920-25 R.H.
- Committee on Geophysical Surveying, 1927-8 R.H.
- Advisory Committee on Rubber, 1926-8 R.H.
- Commission on the constitution of Ceylon, 1927-8 R.H.
- Civil Research Committee and the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, 1925-38 R.H.
- The City of Westminster Health Society, 1921-30
- Irrigation Research Committee, 1928-30 R.H.
- Miscellaneous papers