The Reeves Papers consist entirely of material gathered for his biography about Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and they date from 1931 to 1985, although the bulk of the research was conducted during the 1970s. The collection is arranged into four series that Reeves created: INTERVIEWS, MANUSCRIPT PAPERS, SPECIAL PAPERS, and CHRONOLOGICAL CLIPPINGS.

The INTERVIEWS are unquestionably the heart of the collection. Although the 124 interviews are not verbatim transcripts, all are composed narratives, rather than rough notes, and they include specific facts and details: Reeves tracked down and interviewed McCarthy's widow, Jean Minetti, and his brother Stephen McCarthy; Wisconsin associates such as Mark Catlin, Loyal Eddy, Gerald Lorge, Charles Kersten, Warren Knowles, Francis Wendt, and Urban Van Susteran; associates in Washington such as Roy Cohn, Thomas Korb, Melvin Laird, Dan Surine; and journalists such as Jack Anderson, Ed Bayley, Robert Fleming, Edward P. Morgan, George Reedy, and John Wyngaard. Other individuals such as William F. Buckley, James Doyle, Gaylord Nelson, and William Proxmire also comment. Several individuals such as Mrs. Minetti and Urban Van Susteran were interviewed several times. This section also includes a file entitled “The Search for McCarthyites” which contains correspondence about Reeves' attempts to identify and track down other McCarthy associates. Of special note are letters from Sam Ervin and Margaret Chase Smith.

The CLIPPINGS consist of copies of newspaper stories about McCarthy. Because they consisted of deteriorating negative microfilm reader-printer sheets, all of the New York Times clippings have been removed. The remainder date primarily from 1945 to 1957 and they consist of articles from the Capital Times, the Milwaukee Journal, and the Washington Post, although other newspapers are occasionally represented.

The MANUSCRIPT PAPERS consist of photocopies of documents about McCarthy. A number of collections held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin were consulted by Reeves and these copies have not been retained. Retained are materials from other institutions such as the Owen Lattimore FBI file and collections still in private hands such as the papers of Thomas Korb. In a few cases, such as the file of Mrs. Cocke, a former McCarthy secretary, there are also original materials that she gave to Reeves. In other cases, such as Robert M. La Follette Jr., and George Van Home Moseley, the files consist solely of handwritten notes based on the manuscript collections. There are no files on the McCarthy Papers at Marquette, since they were closed to research.