This collection consists of 4 major subgroups and numerous smaller subgroups.

The largest subgroup consists of the records of the Butte Land and Investment Company (1895-1969). There is extensive company correspondence (1915-1946) by W.A. Kemper and E. Sterrett Shields. Correspondence primarily concerns sale and rental of Butte property, brokerage of mortgages, arrangements for insurance, etc. There is also considerable correspondence concerning general economic and political conditions in Butte, the United States, and the world. Family correspondence is intermixed with the business correspondence. In particular there are long substantive letters between Arthur Kemper and his father S.V. Kemper and his uncle J. W. Kemper concerning the operation of the company and about family matters. Correspondence with S.V. Kemper and J. W. Kemper is the only World War I era correspondence in the collection. Other series in the Butte Land and Investment Company subgroup are financial records (1901-1968); legal documents, including abstract registers (1903-1969), deeds (1895-1965), and mortgages (1899-1927); organizational papers (1895-1966), including an incomplete set of corporate minutes, plus bylaws, incorporation papers and stock books. Also included are a subject file (1900-1917) on a claim dispute over the Butte and Boston placer claim; and miscellany, including advertisement scrapbooks, Butte Merchants Credit Reporting Service flyers, indexes to contracts, lists of lots sold, and lot ownership cards; and a scrapbook of clippings (1920-1960) concerning the company, Butte's economy, the Kemper family, and friends.

Smaller subgroups for subsidiary operations include the Brooklyn Mining Company (1899-1938), of Contact, Nevada; the Butte Coal Company (1916-1917); the Daly Addition Company (1913-1950), the Gibson Ranch Company (1913-1964), a Great Falls real estate company; the Montana Land and Securities Company (1909-1919); the Salmon River Mining Company / Salmon River Mining and Smelting Company (1899-1940), also of Contact, Nevada; the South Park Mining and Realty Company (1911-1926); the State Savings Bank (1894-1905); the Washington-Butte Mining Company (1910-1923); and the Western Fuel Company (1902-1913).

Family subgroups include personal papers (1880-1941) of Simeon Vandeventer Kemper, including legal documents concerning his operation of his Butte real estate business prior to the incorporation of the Butte Land and Investment Company; extensive correspondence concerning his involvement in various Contact, Nevada, ventures including the Brooklyn Mining Company and the Salmon River Mining Company; and considerable personal and family correspondence, often commenting at length on Butte economic and political affairs.

Another subgroup consists of the personal papers (1900-1954) of William Arthur Kemper, including general correspondence with family and friends; financial records of his insurance business; legal documents; and miscellany. In addition a large portion of his correspondence as president of the Butte Land and Investment Company includes personal matters.

Smaller family subgroups include Constance Richardson Kemper consisting primarily of incoming correspondence from her fiancé and later husband William Arthur Kemper, including numerous letters (1904-1906) from the Philippines; Edward W. Kemper (1896-1896); Helen Kemper (1939-1966); James W. Kemper (1889-1939); and Simeon V. Kemper, Jr.\b0 (1943-1967).

There are also subgroups for the families of two business associates: the Charles H. Lawson Family (1919-1939) and Beatrice Bray Purdy Family (1928-1947, 1955).