The incoming correspondence, which is arranged chronologically through 1915 and thereafter alphabetically by department, is largely routine concerning such matters as appointments, removals from office, arrests, pardons, parole cases, requisitions, claims, and land survey contracts. In addition, to exchanges with state agencies, the post-1915 files include letters from some U.S. departments and from some organizations that received state subsidies such as the Wisconsin Humane Society. Correspondence received in the form of telegrams is separately filed here.
The Outgoing letterbooks, which are internally indexed, also include routine matters, but they also embrace some of the topics that are separately catalogued as Series 34: Governor's Correspondence, Special. Two volumes from the Territorial era to 1857 contain clerk's copies of letters to individuals, governmental officials, and others concerning arms quotas for territorial militia, improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, Contingent Fund expenses, Indian lands, and other topics. (Also included is a critical essay on the letters written by Joseph Schafer, Superintendent of the Historical Society.)
