The Gubernatorial Papers consists of affidavits, appointment books, articles, biographical sketches, budgets, clippings, correspondence, daily schedule books, drafts of letters and speeches, election returns, financial records, invitations, lists, memos, minutes, notes, petitions, photographs, political advertisements, postcards, press releases, proclamations, promotional materials, reports, resolutions, routing slips, copies of completed surveys,... telegrams, teletypes and warrants. The Papers date from 1923 to 1955, although the bulk of the material is from the period 1946 to 1951, encompassing Thurmond's gubernatorial campaign and governorship.

The Official subseries consists mainly of correspondence from officials of state boards, bureaus, colleges, commissions, departments and divisions, as well as correspondence from federal and local officials and from constituents. This series also includes reports from state agencies, Thurmond's proclamations while Governor, correspondence regarding appointments at the state and county levels, material relating to extraditions to and from the state of South Carolina and correspondence concerning the award of honorary "colonel" commissions. The Personal subseries is a mixture of true personal and uncategorized official correspondence, mainly to Thurmond, but there are also letters to his administrative assistant, William Lowndes Daniel, Jr., and to his wife, Jean Crouch Thurmond.

The Campaigns subseries documents the political campaigns Strom Thurmond was involved in during the gubernatorial period-the 1946 gubernatorial campaign; the 1948 States' Rights campaign for President of the United States against Harry S. Truman and Thomas E. Dewey; and the 1950 senatorial campaign against incumbent Olin D. Johnston. This series has the largest amount of extant material on the States' Rights Democratic Party, especially the South Carolina branch.

In addition to highlighting one important portion of Strom Thurmond's long and distinguished public career, topics of interest in the series include agriculture; the state budget; civil rights; conservation; economic development; education, including regional education, trade schools and state universities such as Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and Winthrop University; election reform; railroad freight rate equalization; state government reorganization; the activities of the Governors' Conference and the Southern Governor's Conference (Thurmond was chairman of the latter group in 1950); health; highways; labor; law enforcement; the lynching of Willie Earle and Thurmond's efforts to have the perpetrators brought to justice; national and state politics; prisons; probation, pardon and parole; race relations; river and harbor improvements; rural electrification; taxes; temperance; the textile industry; the Thurmond family, especially Jean Crouch Thurmond; welfare; and women in government, including reaction to the appointment of Faith Clayton to the South Carolina Industrial Commission in 1949.

Among the important correspondents in the Papers are Joe F. Anderson, G. H. Aull, J. Perrin Anderson, William P. Baskin, Christie Benet, Mary Thurmond Bishop, W. G. and Martha Bishop, Eugene S. Blease, Benjamin A. Bolt, J. K. Breedin, Edgar Brown, Walter Brown, Joseph R. Bryson, J. Fred Buzhardt, J. Fred Buzhardt Jr., James F. Byrnes, Millard F. Caldwell, John K. Cauthen, John Commins, R. M. Cooper, Horace Crouch, John Bolt Culbertson, Charles E. Daniel, D. W. Daniel, William Jennings Bryan Dorn, John Drake, F. M. Easterlin, J. Drake Edens, Annie Mae Fields, Robert McC. Figg Jr., Cedric Foster, Alester Furman, T. J. Gasque, Mrs. Nathaniel (Christine) Gist Gee, Merritt H. Gibson, L. Mell Glenn, Billy Graham, John Temple Graves, Wil Lou Gray, James H. Hammond, W. G. ("Grady") Hazel, James M. Hinton, P. B. Holtzendorff Jr., J. Edgar Hoover, Beverly Howard, F. Mildred Huggins, Olin Johnston, Bob Jones, Bob Jones Jr., Dr. Waldo H. Jones, J. Carl Kearse, Robert M. Kennedy Jr., James C. Kinard, John D. Lane, Cliff Langford, Calhoun Lemon, Samuel A. Libater, Bruce Littlejohn, J. C. Littlejohn, Burnet R. Maybank, Gessner T. McCorvey, John R. McCravy, Sid McMath, John L. McMillan, Charles W. McTeer, Thomas R. Miller, Roger Milliken, E. W. Montgomery, Lester J. Moody, Charles M. Pace, Fred J. Pearman, Fred Pearman Jr., Drew Pearson, Robert F. Poole, Paul Quattlebaum, Paul Quattlebaum Jr., Leon L. Rice, L. Mendel Rivers, Ruth Roettinger, Richard B. Russell Jr., C. E. Sasser, Glenn Saunders, Aaron Schwartz, James C. Self, Norma F. Shannonhouse, Henry R. Sims, Hugo S. Sims, William G. Sirrine, Norman M. Smith, John M. Spratt, Herman Talmadge, Frank A. Tompkins, Robert and Mary Tompkins, M. E. Thompson, Allan George Thurmond, Eleanor Gertrude Thurmond, John William Thurmond, John William and Elizabeth Thurmond, Jr., Mamie Norris Tillman, George Bell Timmerman Jr., Sidney S. Tison, Harry Truman, William M. Tuck, Cornelia Dabney Tucker, Grady L. Wade, George C. Wallace, George Warren, Sam T. Watkins, Horace C. Wilkerson, B. O. Williams, Rosamonde Wimberly, Caldwell Withers, Julian S. Wolfe, J. H. ("Jake") Woodward, Roland F. Wooton, Fielding Wright, W. W. Wright and Jessie W. Wylie