As president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 until 1987, Hesburgh maintained subject files (130 linear feet) and correspondence files (135 linear feet). He also saved personal papers documenting his activities outside the university (175 linear feet).
Hesburgh's subject files, organized alphabetically and then chronologically within each category, contain general folders for each letter of the alphabet followed by folders bearing more specific titles. The title of a folder sometimes indicates the subject matter of the documents within, sometimes names the organization, department, or individual whose correspondence the folder contains. Most of these files have to do with the business of the university, but a good many concern outside activities. They consist chiefly of letters received by Hesburgh and carbon copies of letters sent by him, with occasional reports, memoranda, agenda, and invitations.
Hesburgh's correspondence files, arranged chronologically by year and alphabetically within each year, also contain letters received and carbons of letters sent. Ordinarily the correspondents represented here have not written as many letters as those who have their own folders among the subject files.
This series includes correspondence with Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush. But such a parade of famous names fails to indicate the scope of Hesburgh's correspondence. The list of correspondents for the first year of his presidency consists of 2123 different names; the list for 1963, ten years later, consists of 2421 different names. In volume his correspondence increased as years went on. The letters from 1953 take up three linear feet, those from 1963 four, those from 1973 five and a half, and those from 1983 six. The subject files contain a similar volume of correspondence for each year. Hesburgh kept in touch with cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and monsignors, with admirals, generals, and members of Congress, with scientists, philosophers, historians, and theologians. He personally responded to letters from ordinary people, answered their questions, dealt with their criticism, and helped solve their problems.