The collection reveals Bridgman's interest in civic and historical affairs. Aside from his general correspondence and his speeches and articles, the papers include material relating to the Saturday Lunch Club of Madison, 1914-1918, and the Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin, 1940-1960; and the correspondence of four men in whose work Bridgman was particularly interested. This latter material has been left as Bridgman originally organized it. The Albert H. Griffith and Boyd B. Stutler correspondence (in separate folders) is indicative of Bridgman's interest in Abraham Lincoln and John Brown. The Amos N. Wilder correspondence concerns the family of the novelist Thornton Wilder, a native of Madison. The folder concerning John Earl Baker deals mainly with Baker's various services for the Chinese government from 1916 through the 1940s, when he served as Inspector-General of the Burma Road. An additional folder contains miscellaneous correspondence and materials dealing with Antigo, Wisconsin, Bridgman's birthplace.
