Consists chiefly of correspondence (approximately 200 items), in large part by the Anglo-American wood engraver, author, and political reformer W. J. Linton to the art historian and editor Sylvester Rosa Koehler. Included are 108 letters from Linton to Koehler, one with an original drawing, discussing in detail illustrations and engravings for some of Koehler's books, including the never-to-be-completed "History of the Art of Color-printing." Linton specifically writes about engraving portraits from photographs that are being sent to him of authors and poets such as William Cullen Bryant, Charles Anderson Dana, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He also discusses different engraving techniques and other engravers and publishers, including Scribner's, Harper's, and Appleton. Other correspondents include Leigh Hunt, Charles Samuel Jovett, Jeremiah Wells, and Henry Benjamin Wheatley. In addition, the collection includes some correspondence written by Eliza Lynn Linton.

The collection further includes a 238-page typescript of a novel, In Exile, credited to Elizabeth Fitzgerald; three manuscripts of poems, presumably by Linton: "The Commonwealth" (n.d.), "Freedom's Triumph" (1884), and "Sir Richard Grenville" (1852); and several photographs of Linton at different stages of his life, at his home and his engraving studio, and of his mother and other family members. Also present are photographs of the Italian philosopher and politician Giuseppe Mazzini, including one by Domenico Lama and two by Elliott Fry; two autograph biographies of Linton; some wood engravings, and clippings with wood engravings of and by Linton from The Illustrated London News and The People's Journal.