The collection is divided into four main groups: The first group contains papers relating to William Clift's work as conservator of the Hunterian Museum. This is the largest of the four groups and contains a number of sub divisions such as explanation and display of specimens, expanding the collections, administration of the museum, and correspondence. This group also contains the transcripts made by Clift and others of the Hunterian manuscripts. The second group contains work carried out by William Clift as an illustrator for publications. The third group contains a small amount of personal material that is in the collection. The fourth group contains transcripts and copies of manuscript material by William Clift that is held in other repositories such as the Natural History Museum.

Papers of Chaja Cohn comprise the story of Vogelei Bilekowicz, who describes the persecution and murder by the Nazis of members of her Jewish community in Przemyst, Poland, and the subsequent exodus of her and her family; the story of Esther Jonas-Leiner-Bauer, Jewish refugee from Hamburg; the story of Alfons and Margarete Pietrowski, Jewish refugees from Posen, Poland and miscellaneous stories.

This World War Two Austrian soldier's letter, amongst other things, describes the systematic murder carried out by the Wehrmacht in Poland, and in particular the murder of civilians by the author's unit. The author also mentions the murder of a number of their own officers by the rank and file and includes an English translation.

Papers concerning the suicide and murder of German Jewish doctors, c 1933-c 1939, comprising a list detailing the names of such individuals.

Papers relating to the assassination of Sir Henry Gurney, High Commissioner for the Federation of Malaya, by the Malayan Races' Liberation Army on 6 Oct 1951, namely an unsigned official report on the assassination and the subsequent action taken by the police and the military, written in 1951, a plan of the ambush scene, 1951, and two photographs of Gurney's funeral procession, 1951.

Papers of Osnabrück war crimes trial and appeal, 1968-1970, comprise a trial judgement against 5 former members of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, in which the state court of Osnabrück found 3 of the defendants guilty of mass murder and 2 of being accomplices to mass murder in Italy in 1943, 1968, and a trial judgement of the appeal of the 5 defendants, in which the Bundesgerichtshof upheld the appeal on the grounds that the period of 20 years under the statute of limitations had lapsed, 1970.

Papers of Sir William Henry Willcox, relating to a variety of topics: murder trials, criminal abortion, the use of insulin and the production of table salt.