Correspondence, speeches, photographs, scrapbooks, certificates, licenses, family records, notes, reports, printed material, and legal papers comprise the David Andrew Simmons Papers, 1861-1963, documenting Simmons's personal life and public career, including his profession as a Houston attorney, his presidency of the Texas Bar Association, and the American Bar Association, his membership in the American Judicature Society, and his work with and membership in the American Academy of Political Science. Additionally, the papers pertain to civil defense efforts during World War II, the Civil Judicatory Council, and Simmons’s founding of the Americans for Eisenhower. The papers also show Simmons’s involvement in the Hemisphere House, the Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Selden Society, the Freedoms Foundation, the Houston Bar Association, and the American Law Institute. Furthermore, the papers document Simmons’s involvement in the Lions Club International, the San Francisco (United Nations) Conference, 1945, and the United Nations Committee on International and Comparative Law, 1950.

Also included is correspondence between David Simmons and his wife Elizabeth, as well as correspondence, leases, printed material, and photographs relating to the purchase and restoration of Old Fort Davis, especially its centennial celebration in 1954.