The Joseph P. McDonnell Papers merely touch upon some of the aspects of McDonnell's career. The collection is divided into three categories: Correspondence, Business Papers, and a Subject File. The folder of Correspondence, arranged chronologically, covers the period 1882 to 1906 with the main concentration in 1888 and 1889. Included are several letters from Samuel Gompers.
The General Business Papers constitute the bulk of McDonnell's Papers and are arranged chronologically. Included are several annual reports of the New Jersey Federation of Trades and Labor Unions, written by McDonnell; New Jersey Senate and Assembly resolutions on subjects related to labor; and a manuscript report of the New Jersey Board of Arbitration for 1893 and 1894, chaired by McDonnell.
The Subject File is arranged alphabetically and includes a short biography of McDonnell by his wife. The clippings include leaflets and newspaper articles dating back to McDonnell's involvement in the Irish nationalism movement in London. Other clippings include his letters to the New York Herald in 1873 on steamship abuses of immigrants; a scrapbook concerning the New Jersey Board of Arbitration while McDonnell was president; and an issue of The National Labor Standard reporting McDonnell's death. Other items include two diaries, one of which was kept while McDonnell was in the Paterson, New Jersey jail in 1880; and two memorandum books, one on the 1891 session of the New Jersey Legislature, and the other kept while McDonnell was chairman of the Executive Board of the New Jersey Federation of Trades and Labor Unions.
