Correspondence, addresses, lectures and speeches, clippings, invitations, literary manuscripts, pamphlets, programs, reports, and other material pertaining to the life and to the personal, familial, academic, professional political, civic, religious and other affairs of the Arkansas lawyer, educator, lecturer, author and politician who was University of Arkansas professor of economics and sociology (1903-15), Governor of Arkansas (1917-21), Redpath Chautauqua circuit lecturer (1918-24), state Democratic party leader, candidate for election to the U.S. Senate, president of Central College (Conway, Ark.), and chairman of the Virginia Boundary Commission.

Other areas to which material pertains are: Baptist church affairs in Arkansas; the teaching of evolution in tax-supported schools; racial violence at Elaine, Ark. in 1919; the Democratic national convention of 1928; the presidential election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932; cotton marketing and prices in the southern states.

Correspondents include: Homer Martin Adkins, Newton Diehl Baker, Alben William Barkley, Theodore Gilmore Bilbo, William Jennings Bryan, Hattie Wyatt Caraway, Thaddeus Horatius Caraway, Bennett Champ Clark, Thomas Terry Connally, Calvin Coolidge, Harvey Crowley Couch, James Middleton Cox, Homer Stille Cummings, Josephus Daniels, John William Davis, George Washington Donaghey, James Aloysius Farley, Charles Joseph Finger, John Gould Fletcher, James William Fulbright, Claude Albert Fuller, John Clinton Futrall, Junius Marion Futrell, John Nance Garner, Warren Gamaliel Harding, William Hope Harvey, George Washington Hays, Lawrence Brooks Hays, John Netherland Heiskell, Louis McHenry Howe, Jesse Holman Jones, Scipio Africanus Jones, Henry Cabot Lodge, Clare Boothe Luce, William Gibbs McAdoo, John Little McClellan, Thomas Chipman McRae, Joseph Kirby Mahony, John Ellis Martineau, Henry Louis Mencken, Colter Hamilton Moses, Alton Brooks Parker, Harvey Parnell, Thomas Joseph Pendergast, William Alexander Percy, Claude Allen Rankin, John Jakob Raskob, Sam Taliaferro Rayburn, Harmon Liveright Remmel, Joseph Taylor Robinson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dunbar Rowland, Alfred Emanuel Smith, William Howard Taft, Joseph Patrick Tumulty, Millard Evelyn Tydings, Robert Minor Wallace, John Sharp Williams, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Otis Theodore Wingo, and Carroll David Wood.

Series 5-11 represent an addition to the Charles Hillman Brough Papers, processed after a finding aid to the first seventeen boxes was completed, and span the years 1895 - 1954. The addition is arranged into series of Published Writings and Printed Addresses; Miscellaneous Reports By Charles H. Brough, and Articles and Clippings re Brough; Materials re Brough’s Career As An Educator; Materials re Brough’s Political, Gubernatorial, and Speaking Activities; Miscellaneous Materials, Photographs, Biographical Sketches and Related Materials re Brough; Arkansas-Related Clippings, Cartoons, and Related Materials; and Materials Pertaining to the Virginia - District of Columbia Boundary Commission. The papers are chronologically arranged.

The published writings and printed addresses by Brough, 1897 - 1935, consist of journal and magazine articles, and newspaper clippings. Brough's early writings deal with various aspects of Mississippi history while he was a professor at Mississippi College and Hillman College, both in Clinton, Mississippi. His writings, 1903 - 1935, document not only Arkansas military, financial, industrial, and cultural history, but also reflect an attitude of boosterism regarding his adopted state. Both Brough's published writings and addresses after 1903 cover such topics as the University of Arkansas and the need for better public services, and promote the State's growth during the 1920's and early 1930's. Brough's writings and addresses span his career as an educator, Arkansas governor, politician, Chautaqua speaker, and college president.

The miscellaneous reports by Charles H. Brough, and articles and clippings re Brough, cover the years 1898 - 1930. Included in the reports are those pertaining to Brough’s activities as chairman of the University Commission on the Southern Race Question, ca. 1913 - 1915. Noteworthy among the articles and clippings are several reviews of Brough’s ph. D dissertaion, Irrigation in Utah, completed at Johns Hopkins University in 1898. Brough's activities as governor of Arkansas are heavily documented in the typescript clippings.

The materials re Brough's career as an educator, 1898 - 1915, are comprised of letters of recommendation (1898 - 1903); and clippings, and other items pertaining to his teaching career at the University of Arkansas, 1904 - 1915.

The materials on Brough's political, gubernatorial, and speaking activities, 1913-1935, include honorary awards and certificates of appointment; invitations; campaign literature regarding his races for governor of Arkansas in 1916 and the U.S. Senate in 1932; petitions, affidavits, proclamations, resolutions and legislative acts and bills; miscellaneous reports, statements, and related materials, 1916-1931; and programs, itineraries and clippings on his speaking engagements and on the Chautaqua circuit. There is also some promotional literature and a passenger list for the Arkansas Exposition Train to the "Outside World", on which Brough was aboard. The bulletins of the Arkansas Honorary Centennial Celebration Commission document Brough’s activities as a member. Included among the miscellaneous reports, statements, and related materials is a public notice, issued by Arkansas Adjutant General Lloyd England on September 16, 1918, listing Arkansans who either were deliquent in reporting to their local draft board or desserters; and a poster pertaining to a Pulaski County United War Work Campaign Organization demonstration scheduled for November 11, 1918. Also noteworthy are statements and clippings pertaining to the Elaine, Arkansas "Race Riot." Together with the typescript clippings on Brough's years as governor, these statements and clippings give valuable information on the background of the "riot" and its aftermath.

The files of miscellaneous materials, photographs, biographical sketches and related materials cover the years 1900-1954. The biographical material include sketches appended to his writings, and clippings about his varied educational and propagandistic activities after 1921.

The clippings, poems, cartoons, and articles pertaining to various aspects of Arkansas history and to "Boosterism" in Arkansas, 1899 - 1930, were arranged toward the conclusion of these papers because they do not reflect Brough's activities. The Arkansas history file includes a poem by Arkansan Opie Read, May, 1899; and cartoons depicting Arkansas author Fred W. Allsopp. The boosterism file contains a pamphlet on John Brown University, "America's Only 'Wholly-Pay-By-Work' College"; promotional literature by the Arkansas Advancement Association and The Industrial Committee, Arkansas Bankers Association, and articles re the Arkansas image published in The Nation and Vanity Fair.

The final portion of the collection is made up of materials pertaining to Brough's appointment as chairman of the Virginia-District of Columbia Boundary Commission, 1934-1935. Included are Congressional hearings and reports establishing the Commission, its rules of procedure; briefs, opinions, transcripts of record, and ownership records pertaining to the boundary dispute; and minutes, interum and final reports of the Commission.