Records include official notices of hearings, hearing agendas, minutes and some transcripts of hearings together with related correspondence, telegrams, and reports of the Texas State Board of Insurance. Some brochures, catalogs, pamphlets, newsclippings, blueprints, maps and photographs are also present. Records, ranging in date from 1910 to 1957, consist of documents related to rate hearings held by the Board of Insurance concerning setting primarily fire insurance rates as well as rates for windstorm (e.g. tornado, hurricane) and other rates under extended coverage clauses for various kinds of property. Annual hearings were held and special hearings were called as needed. Notices of hearings of the board were sent to all insurance companies doing business in Texas. Agenda for the meetings were set according to items submitted for consideration by insurance companies and various parties. At the hearings insurance companies could formally present requests, proposals, or protestations involving proposed or existing legislation concerning insurance rate adjustments. Issues considered at the hearings varied from required material for production of water mains to proposals for changing methods of computing fire records. Kinds of property considered for insurance purposes vary widely and change over the years ranging, for example, from cotton quilt factories; harness, leather, saddle and shoe factories; dance pavilions and opera and vaudeville houses, to oil risks, gasolene or steam-driven motor vehicles, fireworks, schools, breweries, chemical plants, prisons, and rice warehouses. Envelopes originally used to house the documents were destroyed; notes on the envelopes about the contents were transcribed verbatim to the new folders.

To prepare this preliminary inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of content lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.