The entire collection is available on microfilm; only seven printed speeches and a few other items are also available in original paper form. The collection has been organized in three parts: Matthew Hale Carpenter Papers, 1844-1882, 1961; Paul D. Carpenter Papers, 1894-1918 (primarily 1894-1912); and Carpenter Family Papers, 1867-1918.
The papers of Matthew Hale Carpenter include correspondence with his benefactor, Paul Dillingham of Vermont, while young Carpenter was at West Point (1844-1847), and an 1878 letter from Matthew Hale Carpenter to a relative, Alice Bloomer, which is discussed by their descendants in two letters dated 1961. Materials dealing with Carpenter's political and legal career include a file of his speeches; mementos from the Senator's years in Washington; and various letters and resolutions of condolence sent to his widow in 1881. Personal letters to political contemporaries were temporarily removed from other collections owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and reproduced in the microfilm version of these Carpenter papers.
The papers of Paul Dillingham Carpenter stress two highly visible elements in his life: his religious faith and his political career. The correspondence and the major portion of the speech file deal with Carpenter's reflections on and defense of Roman Catholicism. The remainder of the speech file and two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings are concerned with political events. There is little material on Carpenter's private life.
The papers of the Carpenter Family consist of a few business letters, a genealogy chart, wedding invitations, photographs, and other family items. Included is the diary of Lillian Carpenter, daughter of Matthew Hale Carpenter, kept when she was a debutante in Washington society in the late 1870s. Her entries are among the most informative reading in the collection. She carefully noted all social functions she attended and her choice of clothes for each occasion, providing a unique look at women's fashions and social life in the Reconstruction era. Copies of six photographs of family members from the collection have been placed in the Visual Materials Archive of the State Historical Society in the Matthew Hale Carpenter and Family name file.
Some of the clippings in the two scrapbooks in the Paul D. Carpenter files also deal with other members of the Carpenter family.
