The papers of James Rudolph Garfield (1865-1950) span the years 1879-1950 with the bulk of the material dating from 1890 to 1932. The collection includes a series of diaries , 1880-1948, family papers , general and special correspondence , subject and office files , legal and political papers , business records, and the papers of Garfield's wife, Helen Newell Garfield . It reflects Garfield's business concerns as well as his public service as a member of the United States Civil Service Commission, 1902-1903, commissioner of corporations in the Department of Commerce and Labor, 1903-1907, and secretary of the interior, 1907-1909. Other aspects of Garfield's life documented in the collection include his involvement in the civic and cultural development of Cleveland and Mentor, Ohio, and his association with such organizations as the Roosevelt Memorial Association, the Academy of Political Science, and the National Conservation Association. Business interests in Mexico are recorded in numerous comments in his diaries and in letters on the politics of that country. The papers include correspondence and other material about his father, James A. Garfield (1831-1881), twentieth president of the United States.

Garfield's interest in politics from the time of his election to the Ohio senate in 1896, his only elective office, to his term as chairman of the platform committee for the Republican national convention in 1932 is documented throughout the collection. Although material on the Progressive movement, in which Garfield played a significant part, includes correspondence and speeches, his role is not well documented in his papers. Other series with significant gaps include the Office Files , a numbered series for which there are more than two hundred index cards but only about fifty numbered files of corresponding material. The index cards form a separate series in the collection.

Some of Garfield's frequent correspondents were Newton Diehl Baker, Walter F. Brown, James Bryce, Calvin Coolidge, Warren G. Harding, Frederic Clemson Howe, Gaillard Hunt, J. J. Jusserand, Gifford Pinchot, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, L. S. Rowe, Woodrow Wilson, and Leonard Wood.

Helen Newell Garfield's papers document the life of a socially prominent wife of a government official and active politician and businessman. They reflect her interest in religious and civic organizations, especially the Episcopal church, her work with the deaf, and war relief for French orphans of World War I.

Papers in the Addition include letters from Garfield to his wife, 1904, 1914, and 1921; general correspondence, 1895-1896, 1938; and newspaper clippings, 1932, 1946.