The records consist of a sample of employee personnel records, or service record cards, that date from circa 1914 to 1933, as well as copies of the company pension and retirement savings plans that date from 1982 to 1990.

The service record cards cover wage workers at the following Hercules plants: Bacchus, Utah; Bessemer, Alabama; Brunswick, Georgia; Columbus, Kansas; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Hercules, California; Hopewell, Virginia; Joplin, Missouri; Kenvil and Union (Parlin), New Jersey; Pluto, Michigan; Port Ewen, New York; Youngstown, Ohio; and the Wilmington, Delaware, Experimental Station. The cards cover the period from the beginning of the World War I expansion to the closure of plants and layoffs during the early years of the Depression. The cards typically contain information on personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, age, physical appearance, and family, and also on occupation, wage rates, promotion, discipline, and reasons for discharge.

The plants are scattered around the country and thus provide an interesting regional sample of the industrial workforce during the 1910s and 1920s. Most individuals are semi-skilled or unskilled workers, with a smaller number of machinists and other skilled trades. Almost all the workers are male, except that female workers were hired in relatively large numbers at the Port Ewen plant during the 1930s, presumably as a cost-saving measure. The workforce in the southern plants was a mixture of Caucasians and African Americans. Hispanic Americans are prominent at the Hercules plant near San Francisco, and immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe at the plants in New Jersey and New York. The cards show a number of family clusters and transfers between plants.

Pension and retirement savings plans are for both Hercules Incorporated and Simmonds Precision Products, Inc.