As editor of the Jefferson County Union, Hoard carried on a correspondence covering a wide range of topics: with Margaret Sanger on the birth control movement of the early 1900s, with William Jennings Bryan, 1921-1923, on the famous controversy over the theory of evolution, with Colonel William Mitchell in 1925 on the establishment of the Air Force as a separate branch of the armed services, and with Will H. Hays in 1930 on movie censorship. Numerous letters, 1921-1933, from the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, the Anti-Saloon League of America, and other leaders of forces for and against Prohibition discuss the operation of the Eighteenth Amendment and its ultimate repeal. A number of letters from the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Tide Water Association discuss the proposed inland waterway.
Among the subjects of particular Wisconsin interest discussed in the correspondence are highway improvement, protection and conservation of wildlife, and taxation policies. Political correspondents in the state include John J. Blaine, Fred R. Zimmerman, Walter J. Kohler, and Solomon Levitan.
Between 1898 and 1900 Hoard wrote the words and music of a number of songs, several of which were published. Manuscripts and printed versions are in the collection.
As an inventor Hoard devised an improved steering gear for sleds (1908) and a curative posture chair (1913). Letters and documents concerning these and other experimental devices are included. The papers also contain some personal financial records, 1885-1899, and a letterbook of the Fort Atkinson Canning Company, 1901-1903.
Hoard's father, William D. Hoard, founder of the Jefferson County Union, editor of Hoard's Dairyman, and governor of Wisconsin, is represented in the collection by scattered letters addressed principally to his family, 1888-1917, a few articles and addresses, two volumes of accounts, 1860-1866, and scrapbook materials. The manuscript of a University of Wisconsin bachelor's thesis (1923) on Hoard's Dairyman written by Halbert Wenham Hoard, son of H.L. Hoard, is also in the collection. Two folders of autograph letters collected by Hoard are in Box 9.
Collection includes W.D. Hoard & Sons letter and poster to advertisers, 1923: the letter promotes Hoard's Dairyman's newly launched Woman's Department; the poster features an illustration of a dairy farm, Hoard's Dairy John, and statistics of dairy farms owned by Hoard's Dairyman subscribers.
