Orville Hitchcock Platt was a teacher, lawyer, newspaper editor, probate judge (1853-1856), clerk of the State senate (1855-1856), secretary of State of Connecticut (1857), Connecticut legislator (1861-1862, 1864, 1869), state's attorney for New Haven County (1877-1879), and United States Senator (1879-1905) from Meriden, Connecticut. Included in his papers are correspondence, writings, reports, speeches, scrapbooks, memorials, and photographs.