U.S. Army officer (U.S. Civil War, Spanish-American War) and legislator (U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, 1877-1885, 1905-1911). Collection contains correspondence, primarily from 1881-1883, when Keifer was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and two items of miscellany. Incoming letters, mostly from military and political figures, of Susan B. Anthony, James G. Blaine, William Jennings Bryan, Carrie Chapman Catt, James A. Garfield, Marcus A. Hanna, Warren G. Harding, Rutherford B. Hayes, Nicholas Longworth, Whitelaw Reid, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman, William Howard Taft, Leonard Wood, and others.

Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886) served as Governor of New York, 1875-1876, and was the Democratic nominee for the Presidency in 1876. Tilden began his career as a corporate lawyer; he served as Corporate Counsel for the City of New York, as a member of the New York State Assembly, and as Chairman of the Democratic National Convention. Monies from his estate contributed to the founding of The New York Public Library. His papers document his political and legal career and are comprised primarily of correspondence, political and legal files, financial documents, writings, speeches, and personal papers dating from 1785 - 1929 (bulk 1832 - 1886).