The papers of Daniel Augustus Tompkins (1851-1914) span the years 1887-1920, with the bulk of the material concentrated in 1899-1914. The collection consists primarily of correspondence, speeches, and articles, supplemented by books, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous material. The collection is organized into General Correspondence ; Speech, Article, and Book File ; and Miscellany series.

The collection focuses on Tompkins’s views on the economic development of the South and on major public topics in the early twentieth century. There is a very limited amount of material on his personal life, although his business interests receive some attention in the General Correspondence series and in the newspaper clippings and printed matter portions of the Miscellany .

Tompkins, a Southern industrialist, spoke and wrote extensively on the theme that manufacturing must replace agriculture as the foundation of the Southern economy. The Speech, Article, and Book File documents his economic views and provides insights into the condition of the Southern economy in the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. The social concepts that underlay Tompkins’s economic views are also clearly developed, as are his views on such major economic and political issues as currency and tariff reform.