The Furman Hovey Martin Papers are arranged by type of material: American Cotton Handbook chapter; articles; biographical information; Clemson textbooks; conference, trips and visits; correspondence; memoranda; newspapers and newspaper clippings; patents; photographs; publications; reports; and weekly summaries. The collection also contains charts, cloth samples, index cards and tables. Martin prepared extensive correspondence, memoranda and reports for Springs Industries concerning a wide variety of processes, machinery and raw material used in the textile industry, 1940s-1970s. The papers document the research and development department of a major, progressive textile corporation.

The papers date from 1860-1999 with the bulk of the collection 1949-1971.

Correspondence, drafts and corporate publications were used by Martin when he wrote chapter seven, "Opening and Picking Cotton" of The American Cotton Handbook, 1952-1963. Martin also wrote a number of articles for professional publications which are in one folder and date from 1936-1940. The biographical information includes some report cards from Parker High School in Greenville County, 1926-1929, correspondence, and a sketch of the Clemson Aero Club plane, circa 1930s. There are three soft-cover Clemson textbooks that Martin annotated: A.S.T.M. Manual on Presentation of Data, Cotton Classing Manual, and Cotton Opening and Picking. The conference materials include programs, proceedings, and registration information from meetings of the American Society of Quality Control, 1952-1955, the Cotton Clinic, 1948-1970, and the Textile Quality Control Association, 1951-1973. Correspondence concerns various aspects of Martin's research work at Springs as well as his professional activities. There is a small box of index cards of citations to articles about textile manufacturing for the period 1930-1945.

The bulk of the papers are memoranda and project reports from 1945-1972 regarding research undertaken by the Springs Industries Research and Quality Control Department. The newspapers, newspaper clippings and publications were published primarily by Springs Industries during the period 1936-1999. The patents, 1860-1967, include some filed by Springs Industries related to textile manufacturing machinery and manufacturing processes. Photographs include a few of Martin as well as some related to Springs Industries employee events, plant machinery as well as four folders of photographs documenting an extended business trip to France and possibly Belgium circa 1958. The reports concern discussions with experts, professional meetings, and plant visits. Weekly summaries of quality control data from 1952 and process control data 1969-1970 document quality control testing and their results.