James A. Garfield II was the son of James Rudolph and Helen Newell Garfield, and grandson of United States President James A. Garfield. He was raised with his brothers at Hollycroft, the family home in Mentor, Ohio, next to Lawnfield, residence of Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, the president's widow. He graduated from Williams College in 1916 and served in World War I. He married Edwina Forbes Glenn in 1917. They lived in Cleveland and Mentor, Ohio, while James pursued various business ventures. Edwina moved to Florida with her daughters, Helen Louise and Elizabeth, after the couple divorced in the 1930s. The collection consists of correspondence, an autograph book, scrapbooks, speech reading lessons, drawings, newspaper clippings, and notebooks of President James A. Garfield, James Rudolph and Helen Newell Garfield, and James A. and Edwina Glenn Garfield. The papers relating to President Garfield include a scrapbook compiled in 1874 containing documents which refute charges regarding improprieties in military contract awards, a political tract annotated by President Garfield, and a collection of Garfield "Maxims," as well as commemorative publications and a scrapbook of condolences sent to the family after his death. The collection also contains correspondence and other documents related to James Rudolph and Helen Newell Garfield, including teaching materials for speech reading used by Helen Newell Garfield, and letters of Edwina Glenn Garfield to her husband James A. Garfield II discussing concerns of a young, upper class wife of the 1920s.
