The W. Frank Hipp Papers (Record Group 4 of the Liberty Corporation Archives) contains bills, canceled checks, a cash book, clippings, correspondence, income tax returns, insurance policies, an investment account journal, ledgers, legal documents, a line drawing, lists, memos, minutes, photographs, plats, receipts, reports, stock certificates, telegrams, and other material for the period 1885-1970; the bulk of the papers are dated between 1925 and 1943. The record group is arranged alphabetically by folder title, with cancelled checks and financial volumes following. The material in the papers were created as a result of Hipp's business activities, his relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and Newberry College, interactions with other members of the Hipp family, and the settlement of his estate.

The business papers include correspondence, an investment account journal, minutes, reports, stock certificates, and other material concerning investments and stock purchases in such companies as Dunean Mills of Greenville, SC; the Hypoborite [pharmaceutical] Syndicate in Columbia, SC; the Placentia-Richfield Central Oil Company of California; and Spartanburg County Mills of Spartanburg, SC, as well as material documenting the progress of drilling and the financial problems of the Welsh Oil Company /Corporation of Welsh, LA. Some of this material, such as the investment account journal, date to the period when Hipp ran his investment office in Greenville. The sale of ¼ interest in the Newberry, SC agency for Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California by general agent Robert Norris to Hipp in 1909 and ½ interest, in 1910, the assignment of renewal commissions by Norris to the National Bank of Newberry in 1912, and the correspondence, telegrams, and legal documents relating to the legal case that arises from assignment are also part of this collection. There is material relating to real estate transactions in Jacksonville, FL; Richland County, SC; Lavinia Avenue in Greenville, SC; and most notably Northgate Heights, a housing development in Greenville where General Electric "New American Homes" (New American Demonstration Home Building Program) were constructed. The Northgate material includes correspondence relating to its construction, interior decorating and landscaping, and plats of the development.

Most of the family correspondence has to do with requests from family members to Hipp for business, financial, insurance, real estate, and tax advice, as well as for financial assistance. There are also exchanges of family news. Among the correspondents are Harriet Fulmer (a niece of W. Frank Hipp), Paul S. Halfacre (brother of W. Frank Hipp's first wife), Ruth Graham Halfacre (his wife), Carroll D. Hipp (W. Frank Hipp's brother), Dorothy Hipp, Francis Hipp, Lois Hipp Kennedy (W. Frank Hipp's sister), Ella Frances Kennedy, (her daughter), Robert C. Kennedy (her husband), G. Harold Hipp, George C. Hipp, Herman Hipp, J. C. Hipp, and J. W. Hipp. In addition, there is correspondence between Hipp and Dr. Paul Ringer of Asheville, SC, reporting his treatment of Dorothy [Dot] for tuberculosis during the period 1933-1935, and a 1934 school paper on South Carolina history by Boyd Calhoun Hipp.

Nearly a quarter of the collection relates to the settlement of Hipp's estate from 1943-1948; his sons Francis and Herman Hipp were the estate's executors. These files contain correspondence about stocks and dividends; with banks concerning the closing bank balances and loans/notes and the retirement of bank certificates/dividends; with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the South Carolina Tax Commission regarding estate taxes; and with G. Richard Shafto on the valuation of radio station WIS. Among the other estate records in the collection are bank deposit books and statements, bills, a cash book, disbursement records, documents concerning the 1941 reinsurance agreement between Liberty Life Insurance Company and Surety Life Insurance Company, a ledger, probate court and other legal documents (such as the determination, sale, and distribution of estate assets), lists of assets, federal and state tax, returns, and valuations. There is also some material on the settlement of the estate of Hipp's father, J. C. Hipp.

The material concerning the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and Newberry College includes correspondence regarding the purchasing and refinancing Synod and College bonds (especially those Hipp holds), the sale of Summerland College property, and the finances of the Synod and College; there is correspondence with both James C. Kinard, the President of Newberry College, and the Reverend Edgar Z. Pence, the President of the Synod (in Little Mountain, SC). In addition, there are clippings about the College, financial records, Board of Trustee meeting minutes, a mortgage indenture, pledges by Hipp to various College funds, reports regarding a contract to create a sustaining fund for College using an insurance policy with Unity Life Insurance Company in Columbia SC, and a collateral note between the College and Hipp and The Citizens and Southern Bank of South Carolina (Columbia, SC), with information about payments of interest to Frances McFayden Hipp after W. Frank Hipp's death.

The collection also includes biographical information on Hipp (including a copy of his death certificate); correspondence relating to college loans he made to Mary Faith and Edward F. Irick of Elloree, SC, and Ernestine Bodie of Ridge Spring, SC; 1943 letters to Francis Hipp, in sympathy on his father's death and congratulations for becoming president of Liberty Life; items concerning appliances for, repairs to and insurance on the Hipp house on McDaniel Avenue; income tax forms for Hipp and daughter Dorothy (Gunter); Masonic demits, 1926-1927; and material relating to the insurance policies of W. Frank, Boyd Calhoun, and Francis Hipp.

Other major correspondents in this collection include Thomas F. Ball, Angus E. Bird, Eugene S. Blease, John Carradine, Butler B. Hare, Leon LeGrand, and Carroll J. Ramage.

Material relating to W. Frank Hipp may be found in Record Groups 2 (Southeastern Life Insurance Company Records), 3.1 (Liberty Life Insurance Company Legal Department Records), 3.2 (Liberty Life Insurance Company Pre-Corporation Records), 7.1 (Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation Records), 8.1 (Communications Department Photographic Records), 8.2 (Communications Department Biographical Information) and 11.1 (The Liberty Corporation Historical Research Material).

Oversize material, an oversize cash book, and photographs were removed from the collection and placed in oversize or photographic storage.