Consists of a collection of over one hundred letters, primarily to Briton Rivière (1840-1920), the Victorian artist and illustrator, and to his family members, as well as some letters to others. One notable item is a 1872 letter by Charles Darwin relating to Rivière's illustration of two dogs for Darwin's The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). Members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and other Victorian artists and writers figure prominently among the correspondents, who include Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Edward Burne-Jones, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Frank Dicksee, Alfred Gilbert, Edmund Gosse, Anstey Guthrie, William Holman Hunt, George Dunlop Leslie, Frederick Lewis, Robert Walker Macbeth, John Everett Millais, George du Maurier, Edward Onslow-Ford, Edward Poynter, Linley Sambourne, John Singer Sargent, Herbert Spencer, John William Waterhouse, and others. Letters pertain to both personal and professional matters and are sometimes decorated with sketches and drawings. The collection sheds light on artistic cooperation, philanthropy, and friendship among a circle of predominantly English writers and artists in the late 19th century.