Incoming and some copies of outgoing correspondence, both personal and professional. Typed and handwritten letters, postcards, greeting cards, printed-out emails, invitations and announcements, and other correspondence from family, colleagues at other universities, because of Tidwell's job hunting, regarding conferences he attended and research he was or others were conducting, etc. Correspondents often included news clippings, photographs, flyers, copies of others' scholarly work product, and other related materials with their letters.

This correspondence arrived at Spencer Research Library mostly organized chronologically by year or groups of years; Spencer Research Library staff added correspondence that had been loose when found elsewhere while processing this portion of the collection, and these folders are marked by [brackets].