The papers of the Hanna-McCormick family span the years 1792-1985, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the years 1902-1944. The collection focuses on the political activities of Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms but also concerns the political careers of her father, Marcus Alonzo Hanna , and her husband, Medill McCormick . An addition contains considerable material pertaining to the <part>Chicago Tribune</part> and its former publishers Joseph Medill and Robert R. McCormick.

The collection is composed mainly of correspondence, supplemented by diary and notebook fragments, speeches , financial records, printed matter, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous items.

The Family Correspondence series includes letters from both Medill McCormick and Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms to various family members. The letters of Medill McCormick span the period 1889 to 1924 and focus primarily on personal matters. Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms's letters, virtually all to her daughter "Bazy," are concentrated in the years 1942 to 1944 and pertain to personal, business, and political interests.

The Marcus Alonzo Hanna Correspondence series includes material pertaining to state and national politics and information on Hanna's personal and business activities. The political correspondence contains a lengthy exchange of letters with Joseph Foraker in the 1880s and numerous letters from John Sherman and William McKinley in the 1890s. Other prominent correspondents include Benjamin Butterworth, J. C. Donaldson, Charles Foster, and John Wanamaker. Copies of the interviews conducted by James B. Morrow in 1905-1906, when he collected material later used by Herbert Croly in his biography of Hanna, serve as a supplementary source for Hanna's personal and political activities. The respondents, including Joseph Benson Foraker, Theodore Roosevelt, and members of Hanna's family, relate numerous personal anecdotes and political incidents concerning the late senator. Hanna correspondence in the addition is comprised of letters written to his wife in the 1860s and notes to his newlywed daughter Ruth, 1903-1904.

The correspondence of Medill McCormick is concentrated in the years he served as United States senator from Illinois. While the major portion consists of constituent mail, there is also extensive correspondence relating to state and national politics and to McCormick's activities in the Senate. Among the political figures represented in the correspondence are Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, Edward Jackson Brundage, Joseph M. Dixon, Charles Evans Hughes, Henry Cabot Lodge, Frank O. Lowden, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Richard Walker. The series also contains a small group of letters pertaining to the appointment of Medill McCormick's father, Robert S. McCormick, to a diplomatic post abroad, and some family letters of his grandfather, Joseph Medill. Medill McCormick's correspondence in the addition is primarily to his mother Katharine Medill McCormick, his brother Robert Rutherford McCormick, his wife Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, and his cousin Joseph Medill Patterson. Most of the correspondence concerns personal matters or the <part>Chicago Tribune</part> , the family business begun by Joseph Medill.

Most of the Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms Correspondence series is devoted to her political campaigns for the United States House of Representatives and Senate from 1927 to 1930. Her activities in both primary and general elections are documented by a voluminous correspondence with field workers, supporters, and state and local political leaders. Constituent mail forms a large part of the correspondence for the years 1929-1930. McCormick's activities on behalf of the Republican National Committee dominate her correspondence before 1927. Her reaction to economic depression and war, as well as her efforts to promote the political career of Thomas E. Dewey, are the subjects of most of her political correspondence after 1931. Other correspondents include Theodore Roosevelt and Warren G. Harding. Scattered throughout the series are numerous letters relating to her financial and personal affairs. Her correspondence in the addition is primarily personal and family, including letters written to daughter "Bazy," condolence letters following the death of her son in a hiking accident, and correspondence with her first husband, Medill McCormick, concerning his mental health.

The Senatorial Primary Expenditures File concentrates on the investigation of Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms's primary expenditures by a special committee of the Senate in 1930. It includes numerous records documenting her expenditures.

The Speech File and the Miscellany series include a variety of supplementary material to the Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms Correspondence series, particularly for her campaigns and business interests. An autograph collection contains letters and notes signed by Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, James Buchanan, William Lloyd Garrison, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Addition I includes family correspondence, photographs, diaries of Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, financial material of various family members including the McCormick-Patterson trust agreements concerning the <part>Chicago Tribune</part> , oral histories conducted in the 1980s concerning Simms, and a set of scrapbooks covering her political career. The scrapbooks are in extremely fragile condition.

Correspondents in Addition I include Marcus Alonzo Hanna, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Katharine Medill McCormick, Medill McCormick, Robert R. McCormick (publisher of the <part>Chicago Tribune,</part> often called "the Colonel"), Joseph Medill, Eleanor Medill Patterson ("Cissy"), Elinor Medill Patterson, Joseph Medill Patterson (founder and editor of the <part>New York Daily News</part> ), Albert G. Simms, and Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms.

Addition II includes a diary of Simms, 1923-1926, and notes from a speech supporting Herbert Hoover for president in 1932.

A partial index to the correspondence of William McKinley, John Sherman, Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, and Calvin Coolidge in the main part of the collection is appended to this finding aid.