Comprises: Autograph fair copy, for the printer, of Gaskell's novel 'Sylvia's Lovers' (slightly incomplete; MS 1); Victorian autograph album, containing a fragment of 'Sylvia's Lovers' (MS 2); Gaskell's diary dedicated to her daughter, Marianne (1835-1838, MS 3); "Clopton Hall", an article by Gaskell, dated 1840, and three related letters (MS 4); Family commonplace book kept by Jane Adeane and family, including an extract of a letter from Gaskell to Lady Hatherton (MS 5); Review of Gaskell's 'Mary Barton' by Emily Winkworth (MS 6); Letters from Gaskell to Eliza Gaskell (sister-in-law; MS 7), Mrs Nancy Robson (sister-in-law; MS 8), Ann Shaen, Catherine Winkworth, Mrs William Shaen (concerning Charlotte Brontë; MS 9), John Forster (MS 11), her daughters (MSS 12-15), Harriet Carr (MS 18), Florence Nightingale (MS 18), Eliza Fox (MS 24), and others; Letters from Fredrika Bremer (MS 10), John Forster (MS 11), Frances Parthenope Nightingale (MS 17), Caroline Clive (MS 19), and others to Gaskell; Letters from Gaskell's daughters, Miss Meta Gaskell and Mrs Thurston Holland (née Marianne Gaskell) to Clement Shorter (MS 16); Transcripts of correspondence between Gaskell and various people, including Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens (MSS 20-21); Biographical and bibliographical notes about Gaskell made by Clement Shorter and arranged by John Alexander Symington (MS 22); Final TS draft of an unpublished biography "Life and letters of Mrs E.C. Gaskell" by Jane Revere Coolidge (MS 23); and documents related to some of Gaskell's relatives, mainly the Hollands, and to the Dumbleton estate owned by the family in the 19th century (Boxes A-C).