Scope and arrangement
This is a synthetic collection consisting of manuscripts, correspondence by and about the author, an undated galley proof, notebooks and commonplace books dating from [1798?] through 1845, financial documents, portraits, and pictorial works. The manuscripts include poems, directions for illustrating various works, portions of novels, essays, and translations, as well as a poem, "[The Devil's Walk?]", attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and poems by George Raymond with manuscript notes by Barham. The correspondence includes letters from Barnham, dating from 1828 to 1845, to Richard Bentley, Dr. Thomas Hume, and others, as well as letters relating to the author, dating from [1839?] to 1930, between various correspondents, including Richard Bentley, George Cruikshank, John Leech, Michael Sadleir, Gabriel Wells, and others. There are letters to the author by William Henry Ainsworth, Richard Bentley, George Cruikshank, Edward Raleigh Moran, William Makepeace Thackeray, and others, dating from 1829 to 1843.
The Richard Harris Barham collection of papers are arranged in four series: