The collection comprises correspondence by British artists, collected by Paul Mellon. Correspondents represented by multiple items within the collection include James Aumonier, Sir Charles Barry, Henry Sanford Bicknell, Frank Bramley, Charles Robert Cockerell, David Cox, Henry William Banks Davis, Francis Bernard Dicksee, William Hepworth Dixon, William Edward Frost, George Godwin, Frederick Goodall, Arthur Hacker, James Astbury Hammersley, Philip Hardwick, Solomon Alexander Hart, John Evan Hodgson, John Callcott Horsely, Charles Joseph Hullmandel, Colin Hunter, Charles Landseer, Benjamin William Leader, John Linnell, Edwin Longsden Long, William Mark, Francis Graham Moon, Albert Joseph Moore, Philip Richard Morris, John Trivett Nettleship, Edmund John Niemann, Aaron Edwin Penley, Frederick Richard Pickersgill, Henry William Pickersgill, Paul Falconer Poole, Harry Quilter, Samuel Read, Richard Redgrave, Samuel Redgrave, Thomas Miles Richardson, David Roberts, John Ruskin, Joseph John Scoles, John Simpson, Frank Stone, James Ward, Henry Warren, and Henry Tanworth Wells.