Correspondence, memoranda, diary, speeches, writings, reports, subject files, printed matter, and other papers documenting Murdock's political career as a U.S. congressman from Kansas and his leadership of the Republican "insurgents" who contested the power of U.S. Congress speaker of the house Joseph Gurney Cannon in 1910. Includes material concerning Murdock's involvement in Kansas state and local politics, activities on behalf of the Progressive Party, and service as a member of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Murdock (Murdoch) family papers include correspondence and other papers of Murdock's father, Marshall M. Murdock, a senator in the early Kansas legislature and founder of the Wichita Daily Eagle, and his brother, Marcellus M. Murdock, publisher of the Wichita Daily Eagle.

Correspondents include Henry Justin Allen, William Augustus Ayres, Joseph L. Bristow, Arthur Capper, Robert J. Collier, William B. Colver, Josephus Daniels, Jonathan McMillan Davis, J.N. Dolley, J. Franklin Fort, Norman Hapgood, Henry Joseph Haskell, Frederic Clemson Howe, Alfred M. Landon, David D. Leahy, Walt Mason, John Noble, George William Norris, John S. Phillips, Clyde Martin Reed, Theodore Roosevelt, Jouett Shouse, Walter Roscoe Stubbs, Mark Sullivan, Huston Thompson, and William Allen White.