In general, Thwaites retained Draper's order of arrangement whenever this was discernible.
Thwaites and his staff arranged papers which were in chaotic disorder into new categories or
interfiled them into Draper's groups. Under Thwaites's management the collection was
subdivided into fifty series, each of which was titled and given an alphabetical pressmark.
With two exceptions the series were arranged alphabetically by title. (Pension Statements,
Draper Mss 00 follows Pittsburgh and Northwest Virginia Papers, Draper Mss NN; Tecumseh
Papers, Draper Mss YY, follows Tennessee Papers, Draper Mss XX.) By October 1893, Thwaites
and several assistants had sent 261 additional volumes to the bindery. Additional binding
continued over many years.
Although the basic organization of the Draper Manuscripts was not altered, some additional
materials have been added to a few of the series since Draper's death. Thwaites gathered the
correspondence and papers bound in 1915 as volumes 31 through 35 of the Kentucky Papers,
Draper Mss CC. Milo M. Quaife acquired and added papers of Nathan Heald sufficient to form
volume 24 in the Frontier Wars Papers, Draper Mss U. Inadvertently buried and overlooked for
many years, a bundle of diaries of Thomas S. Hinde was found in the Society's administrative
office after Thwaites's death in 1913. In 1948 these were interfiled with the other volumes
in the Hinde Papers, Draper Mss Y. Scattered through the collection are a few miscellaneous
biographical notes and clippings dated after Draper's death. The new (1980) microfilm
edition includes three volumes which had been filed in the Draper Manuscripts but were not
included in the earlier (1949) film edition; volumes 35 and 36 in the Kentucky Papers (CC)
and volume 19 in the King's Mountain Papers (DD). In final arrangement for microfilming the
Draper Manuscripts totaled 491 volumes of widely varying sizes and shapes.
