The John S. Bordner Papers contain both personal and professional materials including correspondence; subject files relating to Bordner's many interests and activities; copies and drafts of essays, articles and pamphlets; research notes and data; news clippings; magazine clippings; financial and tax records; reminiscences and biographical material; press releases; religious and church materials; maps and tables; various programs and notebooks; birth, marriage, and school records; and miscellaneous materials. The papers are organized into two main series, PERSONAL PAPERS and PROFESSIONAL PAPERS. The PERSONAL PAPERS are divided into seven subseries; the PROFESSIONAL PAPERS into fifteen.

The PERSONAL PAPERS contain reminiscences and biographical material; incoming correspondence; financial and tax records; family records; and church and religious materials. In addition there are copies of Bordner's Ph.D. thesis and miscellaneous materials.

The personal history materials include news clippings about Bordner's retirement and his obituary. There are also reminiscences written by Bordner in 1956-1957, described by him as “the story of my life in short episodes and not as a chronological narration.”

Incoming personal correspondence, the second subseries, constitutes about half of the personal papers. It is organized by subject and chronologically thereunder. The majority of the correspondence is composed of letters and cards from Bordner's daughter Jean to her family during the period 1936-1948. Most of the other correspondence deals with the mortgage on and condition of Bordner's farm land in Rusk County between 1939 and 1947. There is also a small folder of incoming correspondence for Bordner's wife and some miscellaneous correspondence.

Included in the financial records subseries are real estate receipts for Bordner's property in Dane and Rusk Counties. There are also copies of his income tax returns for the late 1930s and early 1940s and some miscellaneous receipts.

The family records include retirement records, Bordner's birth certificate and marriage record, and a 1926 grade school transcript for Jean Bordner.

The church affairs/religious materials contain some correspondence and a financial report about the First Congregational Church of Madison, of which Bordner was a member. There are also various study guides, Christmas messages from the Bordner family, notes, and miscellaneous items.

The thesis subseries contains original drafts of Bordner's 1908 Ph.D. thesis as well as a reprint of it.

The miscellaneous papers include programs, a partially completed daily calendar for 1950, a humorous “arrest” warrant, and an original poem by Jean Bordner (circa 1925).

The PROFESSIONAL PAPERS contain general correspondence and other subseries on Bordner's activities and interests. The subseries which follow the correspondence are filed in a more or less chronological order, beginning with material on Bordner's days as a county agricultural agent in Indiana. Subsequent subseries contain materials on the Wisconsin Land Economic Inventory; the Wisconsin Cooperative Housing Association; Wisconsin cooperatives; national/ out of state cooperatives; the 1935 state religious conference on the cooperative way of living; Kagawa day in Madison (1936); various other seminars/conventions on cooperatives; educational materials on cooperatives; the Tennessee Valley Authority; the sun and the weather; philosophical essays written after Bordner's retirement; general economic developments; and miscellaneous materials.

The general correspondence covers the period 1934-52, with a few scattered items from 1929, 1954 and 1958. There is no correspondence for the years 1948 and 1953. The largest segment of the correspondence is for the period 1935-39. The correspondence is organized chronologically and alphabetically thereunder.

The materials dealing with Bordner's days as an Indiana county agricultural agent include news clippings, a field notebook of sketches and agricultural information and a pamphlet on rural life compiled by Bordner.

The Wisconsin Land Economic Inventory subseries includes a variety of articles, papers and speeches by Bordner. There are also materials indicating the general purposes of the Land Economic Inventory, subject files on various topics ranging from cranberry marshes to assistance to veterans, some correspondence regarding an agricultural bulletin (organized chronologically), county maps, statistics relative to Wisconsin, and miscellaneous materials.

The Wisconsin Cooperative Housing Association subseries contains general correspondence for 1936-38, 1940, 1945-46 (organized chronologically); materials relating to the establishment, organization and history of the Association and its Crestwood project; financial records and audits. In addition there are maps and directories of Crestwood, various subject files, some directors' newsletters and reports, general information on cooperative housing in the United States and Europe, and miscellaneous items.

Included in the Wisconsin cooperatives subseries are materials on six different Wisconsin cooperatives. There is also general information about the Rural Electrification Administration in Wisconsin as well as reports on farm and oil cooperatives in the state and a 1935 mailing list of Wisconsin cooperatives.

The national/out-of-state cooperatives subseries contains scattered material on two national cooperatives and three state or local cooperative organizations.

The subseries dealing with the 1935 state religious conference on the cooperative way of living contains correspondence (organized chronologically) and files on planning, the conference program, and mailing lists.

The Kagawa Day subseries is organized similarly to that on the 1935 state religious conference and, in addition, contains materials on Toyohiko Kagawa and his teachings and maps of Japan.

The subseries on other cooperative seminars/conventions includes files on eight such conventions or seminars, most of which took place in the middle or late 1930s. Half of these conferences were held in Wisconsin.

The educational materials subseries contains general educational materials on cooperatives, lesson plans, bibliographies of cooperative literature and published articles by Bordner. In addition there are notes on cooperatives, handbooks on Wisconsin cooperatives, information on overseas cooperatives and news clippings describing opposition to cooperatives.

The TVA subseries contains pamphlets giving general information on the project and describing its accomplishments. There are also press releases and speeches and articles by TVA director Arthur Morgan.

The sun and weather subseries includes numerous article drafts, drafts of and a copy of Bordner's 1949 pamphlet Sun, Energy and Weather, tables, charts, and maps. It also contains two folders of the correspondence of State Forester Williams Morris on sunspots and the forest fire hazard, scientific news clippings, a folder on planetary behavior, a manuscript on radiant energy and animal ecology, and miscellaneous materials.

The philosophical essays subseries contains copies of two general papers written by Bordner after his retirement.

The subseries dealing with general economic developments contains reports, news clippings, and magazine articles on economic trends and problems in the U.S. and other countries.

The miscellaneous subseries includes scattered information on a wide variety of subjects covering the period 1934-1957.