Materials included within the biographical data include resumes and vitae, a 1981 resume of Graven's law firm, newspaper and magazine clippings, ephemera, and two video recordings. The resumes and vitae detail Graven's professional and civic activities from 1962 through the mid 1970s. Included within the resumes is an autobiographical sketch Graven wrote for his 1970 gubernatorial campaign. The clippings cover Graven's high school years, his college years, his legal career, his teaching career, his civic activities, and his death. Additional clippings regarding his political activities can be found within the series of papers pertaining to politics. Included within the ephemera are various cards and certificates evidencing Graven's achievements, memberships and awards from 1936 through 1988. The video recordings include a family history narrated by Graven, complete with reformatted family photographs and motion pictures. The second recording is a posthumous account narrated and produced by Graven's law partner, Jim Holmes. This account includes clips from various seminars and interviews in which Graven participated as well as brief reminiscences and tributes from local political figures and members of the legal profession such as Wendell Anderson, Dave Durenberger, Donald Fraser, Skip Humphrey, Walter F. Mondale, Russell Olson, Warren Spannaus, and Robert Stein.

The correspondence files include both incoming and outgoing letters which begin in 1949 while Graven was a student at St. Olaf College and continue through April 1991 just before his death Topics covered by the correspondence include all aspects of Graven's life and all aspects of his political and professional interests. Included are letters from family members and letters from professional, civic, and political associates. Notable, but irregular, correspondents within the collection include such political figures as Dave Durenberger, Orville Freeman, Hubert H. Humphrey, Walter F, Mondale, and Warren Spannaus. Correspondence dating from 1950 through 1960 includes letter sent or received by Graven's father, Henry Graven, concerning Graven's academic and professional achievements. Included within the correspondence files is a separate folder of correspondence sent from the David Graven household in Minnesota to the Henry Graven household in Iowa between 1960 and 1970 and an additional folder of letters addressed to Graven's children between 1968 and 1989 as "Dear Gang" letters. Additional family letters can be found interspersed throughout the correspondence.

Clippings of articles published in the Wall Street Journal written by Graven's daughter.

Files originating from Graven's participation on various councils, coalitions, and committees primarily document his professional and civic interests and activities during the late 1970's and throughout the 1980s. Materials within these files include correspondence, agendas, minutes, reports, press clippings, and other miscellany.

Files reflecting Graven's involvement with organizations related to his legal profession include the Minnesota branch of the Historical Society of the U.S. Courts in the Eight District; the Legislative Committee of the Minnesota State Bar Association; and the Lawyers Public Affairs Commission (LAWPAC), a political action coalition formed with Graven's impetus out of the Minnesota State Bar Association.

Materials reflecting Graven's interest in public affairs include such topics as private sector delivery of public services, transportation, and medical technology. The issues of medical technology and health care costs are extensively documented within the files pertaining to the Price of Life Task Force, a group formed in 1983 under the Minnesota Coalition on Health Care Costs and chaired by Graven. The work of this task force resulted in the 1984 publication of a report and extended discussion within the medical and public communities.

Other documented groups in which Graven participated include the Task Force on Alternative Delivery Systems chaired by Dave Durenberger under the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations; the Citizens League; the Metropolitan Council; the Transplant Policy Advisory Committee of the Center for New Democratic Processes; the Red Cross Independent Organ Procurement Advisory Board; and two advisory committees pertaining to the University of Minnesota's Center for Biomedical Ethics and health sciences program.

Additional information concerning Graven's membership with these various groups and further background discussion of group projects may be found within Graven's correspondence. Additional material specifically related to the University of Minnesota can be found in the Citizens League's Commitment to Focus report and in a 1986 radio interview with Graven.

Interviews with Graven include recordings of four radio and television broadcasts which contain discussions of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, medical technology and health care costs, and the 1986 Citizens League report on the University of Minnesota.

The writings, legal briefs, seminars, and speeches represent Graven's literary and speaking activities. These materials include assorted texts, articles, and speeches written by Graven that were intended for the purpose of publication, legal case work, seminar case studies, or speaking engagements. Topical issues included within this series of papers range from religion and politics to health care and education.

The most extensive documentation is centered in the area of real estate and public meeting law, two of Graven's specialties. Papers pertaining to these topics consist of Graven's research files and the materials he prepared for use in seminars.

Also noteworthy are two writings regarding Graven's participation in the regional transportation planning processes of the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities. Graven chaired the Council's Transportation Advisory Board from 1977 to 1984 and, while these writings predate that chairmanship, they give a good history of the council's impact on Twin Cities transportation development policy as well as Graven's personal perspective.

Graven's speech files are extremely disorderly, containing handwritten notes and texts. Also included are scattered correspondence, research materials, clippings, and events programs. Very few of the speeches are available in a typescript form. The bulk are filed together in rough chronological sequence as speech miscellany; the remainder by topical title.

Papers chronicling Graven's political life include files documenting his 1962 congressional campaign, his 1970 gubernatorial campaign, his membership in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Jim Erickson's 1972 congressional campaign, and Dave Durenberger's 1982 congressional campaign. These papers include campaign literature, committee files, correspondence, financial materials, press releases, newspaper clippings, photographs, and scrapbooks. Additional information regarding Graven's political interests and associations may be found within the correspondence.