The records in this series concern Strom Thurmond's personal life, excluding his legal and military careers, which are represented in a series of their own. The series is divided into four subseries: College Days, Educational Career, General Correspondence and Subject Correspondence. There are some family trees on the Thurmond/Strom families stored in the Special Collections' oversize section.

The Pinks series was the cross-reference file for subject correspondence generated by Senator Strom Thurmond's office for the period 1954-1976 before the introduction of the centralized Correspondence Management System by the Senate Computer Center in 1976. The original cross-reference files consisted of pink colored carbon paper copies-hence, the "Pinks" series.

The final reel of microfilm is of three clippings scrapbooks created for the three youngest Thurmond children: James Strom Thurmond, Jr., Juliana Gertrude Thurmond, and Paul Reynolds Thurmond. These scrapbooks are similar in content and include articles that mention the children, including Senator Thurmond's birthday celebrations and coverage of Nancy Moore Thurmond's death in 1993. Some commencement programs and clippings are unique to the child whose name is on the scrapbook.

The Subject Correspondence series is named for the central file used by Senator Strom Thurmond's office before changing over to a computerized filing system, the Correspondence Management Series (CMS), in 1976. Some subjects from the Subject Correspondence series for 1976 may overlap into the CMS series.

This series contains correspondence between Senator Thurmond’s office and the White House from 1969 - 1981. Material in this series consists mainly of letters, memos, and telegrams, with some statements and newspaper articles. The correspondence deals with both governmental and personal matters. Earlier correspondence may be found in the Subject Correspondence series.