By far the largest series in the collection, the Order Files are purchase orders, invoices, receipts, and related correspondence for Charles H. Kerr Company publications from individuals, labor and radical organizations, other organizations (such as Rotary Clubs and the U.S. Navy), libraries, and bookstores. Orders for books came from all over the world and nationwide. The filing schemes for keeping track of the orders varied greatly over the years, and in some schemes there is overlap with other years. It is said in the Kerr Co.'s own centennial publication (1985) that order files before 1920 were confiscated by the United States Government during the times of the Palmer Raids; unfortunately, most orders from the 1930's seem to have disappeared as well. On the whole, orders before 1945 are scarce, but some seem to have survived, especially if the buyer was a regular customer of the Kerr Company's.