The George M. Hall Travel Diary was written inside of a 1928 appointemnt book on a trip to South Africa to attend the XV International Geological Conference in 1929. Hall’s journey began and ended with a shipboard journey of a month, and he spent another month before and after the Congress traveling around Africa, for total of five months recorded in the diary.

These level books appear to contain a series of field exercises in geological surveying undertaken by Ohio State University's Department of Geological Sciences in Columbus, Ohio. Participants include Welch, Julian Maxey, John Gillette, John C. Frye, Phyllis A. Weidman, J. B. Sparks, and Gurley.