The collection comprises personal and literary papers of Miles Franklin. Personal papers include diaries and notebooks and an extensive collection of correspondence. Literary papers include manuscripts and publishing papers of Miles Franklin, as well as literary papers of Mary Fullerton. The collection also includes family papers of the Franklin and Lampe families and papers received from the estates of Alice Henry and Mary Fullerton.

Contents include material relating to trades unions, Australian Labor Party, Australian Communist Party and material relating to women in the feminist movement including papers relating to Alice Henry.

The collection consists mainly of correspondence relating to Australian literary interests and figures, particularly to Joseph Furphy and his writings. The main sections are letters from Furphy to his mother, to Kate Baker and to William Cathels; from Kate Baker to Margaret Boyd and A.K. Wilson; and from A.G. Stephens to Furphy and Baker. Correspondents in the collection include: J.S. Neilson, Guy Innes, C. Winterbottom, Vance and Nettie Palmer, Miles Franklin, Charles Bryde, Gerald Bryne, J.K. Ewers, H.B. Grattan, F. Wilmot, the editor of the Bulletin, the Australian Literature Society and publishers and booksellers such as Angus and Robertson. Other items include photographs, presscuttings, typescript copies of articles, MS copies of poems by J. Furphy and Kate Baker's Silhouettes - articles about such Australian literary figures as Ada Cambridge, J.K. Ewers, J.S. Neilson, Alice Henry, R.H. Croll, D.O'Reilly, Canon Hughes, Vance & Nettie Palmer, Dame Mary Gilmore Hubert Church, B. O'Dowd, A.G. Stephens, C. Winterbottom, C. Bryde, M. Franklin, G. Byrne, Edith Coleman, E. Coulson Davidson, C. Lang, C. Strong and Victor Kennedy.

Descriptive list (28 p.) available.

The papers include newspaper cuttings, typescript and manuscript articles, some letters, and scrapbooks. Most of the material is concerned with women and trade unions and women's suffrage. The material divides roughly into two sections:
1. Biographical articles on people connected with trade unions and the labour movement and people in the literary and theatrical worlds. 2. Articles relating to Alice Henry or written by her, which appeared in newspapers and magazines.