Loose correspondence, 1895-1949 and undated

This subseries contains Carpenter's correspondence found unfiled in the collection. As many of the same subjects are covered, the same Subseries 1 categories are utilized: cattle, compacts and rivers, legal, personal, and political. The only difference is here the personal category is split in two: "by person" and "by subject." Preference was to organize the personal correspondence by subject, but when a letter concerned several subjects or no subject in particular, it was grouped into "miscellaneous" folders. Frequent correspondents were separated into their own folders. Each category is arranged alphabetically. Loose correspondence that overlapped the filed correspondence on topic and by date was interfiled there.

Included in the cattle correspondence is information on finances as well as reservoir withdrawals. As in the previous subseries, the compacts and rivers category is the largest, with the Colorado being the most written about river. Photocopied Colorado River correspondence is filed after original copies by year. The photocopies do not duplicate the contents of this collection; they were probably created by Donald Carpenter before he donated materials to the Hoover Presidential Library, as evidence indicates they duplicate the Hoover Library materials, though possibly only in part. The "Compacts" folders contain correspondence concerning more than one compact or the topic in general.

The bulk of the legal category is correspondence with Carpenter's client, the Colorado Water Users Association. Personal correspondence concerns a variety of subjects, including honors received, family topics, and past reminiscences. Most of the personal correspondence is letters received by Carpenter, with few copies of his replies existing. The political category contains a variety of topics, but is best represented by correspondence on the Carpenter Reservoir Bill.