The collection contains personal papers and original drawings of George Cruikshank, reflecting his active participation not only in the world of book illustration and caricature but also in the temperance movement of Victorian England. Included are manuscript material, drawings, documents, and correspondence with editors, publishers, illustrators, authors, friends, and family such as William Harrison Ainsworth, John Auldjo, Octavian Blewitt, Richard Bentley, J. Cruikshank Roger, Robert Bell, Edward Dalziel, and Charles Tilt. There is miscellaneous material relating to Cruikshank's participation in the 48th Middlesex Volunteers; material dealing with the controversial Robert, the Bruce, Monument; and papers relating to his estate, a testimonial fund, a memorial at St. Paul's, and his posthumous autobiography. Many letters and manuscripts exhibit working sketches of Cruikshank, and there is a large number of bound volumes of original sketches and drawings (and engraved copper plates) Cruikshank created for published works

Much of the collection consists of papers of others, mainly, those of Eliza Cruikshank, the artist's wife and amanuensis. Beside papers relating to her husband there are correspondence and documents concerning Mrs. Cruikshank's family and friends, including Catherine Hogarth Dickens, the wife of Charles Dickens. Included in the papers of others are manuscripts submitted to Cruikshank for possible illustration. Additional papers contain letters written by Cruikshank to William Henry Merle, Charles A. Howell, and others, letters to and by Eliza Cruikshank, correspondence of others, and miscellaneous material.