The collection includes material relating to Hynd's spell as Minister for Germany and Austria from 1945 to 1947 and his consequent life-long interest in Germany and in promoting good relations between Germany and Great Britain. There are several files of papers in the collection illustrating this aspect of his career as well as his involvement in other aspects of foreign relations.
Having started his career as a railway clerk in his home town of Perth, Hynd kept some of his early writings, talks and other papers on transport and on the Trades Union movement in general. There are also constituency papers from his Parliamentary constituency of Attercliffe in Sheffield throughout the years in which he represented that Division as a Labour Member of Parliament, as well as a few Labour Party papers.
The collection also contains a number of cartoons by Hynd, mainly from the 1930s. Hynd regularly contributed articles and cartoons to local Sheffield newspapers and to the ‘Railway Review’ during the time between his adoption as a prospective candidate for the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield and his appointment as a Labour MP in 1944.