Correspondence, memoranda, business and legal records, account books, printed matter, photographs, and other papers relating to Simmons's cotton and yarn manufacturing enterprises, Rhode Island and national politics, and economic and social conditions in Rhode Island. Subjects include the Bank of the United States, bounty laws, Thomas Wilson Dorr and the Dorr Rebellion of 1842, exporting and importing, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, manufacturing, James K. Polk, the Whig Party, slavery, tariff, and the annexation of Texas. Includes correspondence with Simmons's son, Walter C. Simmons and other family members. Other correspondents include Lawrence F. Abbott, Charles Francis Adams, Henry B. Anthony, Hervey Armington, Zenas R. Bliss, Leslie Combs, H.G. Cranston, Robert Bennie Cranston, Asbury Dickins, Edward J. Eno, Edward Everett, William Ferguson, Elbridge Gerry, William C. Gibbs, William Hunter, Charles Jackson, George W. Jackson, Thomas A. Jenckes, Nehemiah Rice Knight, Abraham Lincoln, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Charles Potter, Richard K. Randolph, Nathan S. Ruggles, Nathan Sargent, William Henry Seward, Nathaniel Pitcher Tallmadge, Joseph L. Tillinghast, John Tyler, Amasa Walker, William A. Watson, and Daniel Webster; and the firms, Abbott & Bliss, Fearing & Hall, Liverman & Cushing, and Tiffiny, Ward & Co.