The collection comprises correspondence and literary papers of Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham Edgeworth and other members of the Edgeworth family.

The literary manuscripts are holograph unless otherwise indicated. However, since much of the Edgeworths' literary and educational work was collaborative, where possible both the author and the amanuensis have been identified. For a bibliography of the works of Maria Edgeworth, see Bertha Coolidge Slade, Maria Edgeworth, 1767-1849, a bibliographical tribute(London, 1937), referred to throughout as Slade. For a biography of Maria Edgeworth, see Marilyn Butler, Maria Edgeworth - a literary biography (Oxford, 1972), referred to below as Butler; there is a family tree on p. 489.

Selections from Maria Edgeworth's correspondence have been published as Maria Edgeworth, letters from England 1813-1844, ed. Christina Colvin (Oxford, 1971), and Maria Edgeworth in France and Switzerland, ed. Christina Colvin (Oxford, 1979). A detailed calendar of Maria's letters and of selections from the family correspondence, arranged chronologically, was compiled by Mrs. Colvin and is in MS. Facs. c. 99. It has been annotated with the Bodleian shelfmarks of the individual letters.

An embroidered evening bag of Maria Edgeworth, early 19th cent., given by Lady Colvin [1998?], is Janitor's List of Library Portraits and Objects 743.