Correspondence, memoranda, business and legal records, account books, photographs, printed matter, 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 bounty laws, the Bank of the United States, Thomas Wilson Dorr and the Dorr Rebellion of 1842, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, 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; Abbott & Bliss; Henry B. Anthony; Hervey Armington; Zenas R. Bliss; Leslie Combs; H.G. Cranston; Robert Bennie Cranston; Asbury Dickins; Edward J. Eno; Fearing & Hall; Elbridge Gerry; William C. Gibbs; William Hunter; Charles Jackson; George W. Jackson; Thomas A. Jenckes; Nehemiah Rice Knight; Liverman & Cushing; Samuel Finley Breese Morse; Charles Potter; Richard K. Randolph; Nathan S. Ruggles; Nathan Sargent; Nathaniel Pitcher Tallmadge; Tiffany, Ward & Co.; Joseph L. Tillinghast; Amasa Walker; and William A. Watson.