The archive consists of records, mostly originating from the General Secretary, of the British Vigilance Association, 1923-1971. These include campaign and resource files (prostitution, immoral earnings, and conditions of employment for au pair girls), correspondence with individuals and organisations, fragments of other administrative series and files relating to the final winding up of the British Vigilance Association (BVA), International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons (IBS) and their associated organisations in 1971.

The minutes of the British Vigilance Association, including those of the Sub-Committee on the Welfare of Irish Girls in England (renamed the Irish Girls' & Related Problems Sub-Committee) are also held by the Women's Library but within the National Vigilance Association Archive (see 4NVA).

The archive consists of minutes of the Bureau (1899-1940, 1942-1953), annual reports (1952-1966), conference papers, publications printed and received, League of Nations files and documents related to other advisory committees, country files containing correspondence and official materials, files of the general secretary containing similar files covering the post-war period and correspondence.

Abbreviations include:

ACISJF - Association Catholique Internationale Services de la Jeunesse Feminine: International Catholic Society for Girls.

AMSH - Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.

ASHA - American Social Health Association.

BNC - International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons: British National Committee.

BVA - British Vigilance Association.

FAI - Fédération Abolitionniste Internationale.

IAF - International Abolitionist Federation.

IB - International Bureau.

IBS - International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons (also known as IBSTP).

IBSTWC - International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Women and Children.

NGO -Non-Governmental Organisation.

NVA - National Vigilance Association.

TAS -Travellers' Aid Society

UN - United Nations.

UNESCO - United Nations Economic and Social Organisation

USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

VD - Venereal Disease

CD - Contagious Diseases

CDA - Contagious Disease Acts

Records of the British National Committee for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade (BNC), comprising:
Minutes of the committee (1928-1953) and subcommittee to review the constitution (1948); draft minutes and papers for the 1936 annual meeting; files comprising rules (1931, 1933), invitations to lecture conferences (1943) and International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons: British National Committee (BNC) subcommittee minutes; notes and minutes of meetings (1936-1950), International Bureau papers on procedures at congresses, resolutions transmitted, committee membership and correspondence including that of general secretary (1947-1951), report on the work of the International Bureau since 1947 (1948), Rachael Crowdy's suggestions re: Article VI of draft United Nations (UN) convention.

The archive consists of minutes (including those of the British Vigilance Association (BVA)), annual reports, and publications. Correspondence and campaigning files on issues of public morality, sexual morality, traffic in women, the armed forces, obscenity, prostitution, entertainment and employment. Case files (including some individuals) including regional cases from Wales and North-East England. Administration in connection with British National Council, International Bureau, Travellers' Aid Society (TAS); also the Public Morality Council; and miscellaneous papers including campaign, resource and administrative files about various issues connected with social morality and public morality.

The Josephine Butler Society Library is an unrivalled resource for the study of sexuality and public morality from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. This unique collection of books, pamphlets, periodicals, leaflets and, campaigning documents, covers subjects ranging from the regulation of prostitution, venereal disease, social purity, sexuality and public health to criminology, penology, eugenics and population control. Although a small number of individual items continue to be added to the collection by the Josephine Butler Society, the bulk of the printed materials date from the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries.

The Josephine Butler Society Library is particularly important because it brings together the Library of the organisation alongside its campaigning literature and business papers. In addition to sources for the study of prostitution and attitudes to sexuality in Britain the collection includes significant amounts of material on slavery, procuring, public health and the armed forces in India. It contains late nineteenth century works on sexology by Havelock Ellis, Bloch, Forel and Krafft-Ebing and psychology by Freud, Jung and Ellis, as well as works on marriage, the family and sex education. Although most material in the collection is in English there are small but significant numbers of works in European languages. The geographic scope of the collection extends beyond Britain and the Commonwealth; papers of the International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons 1899-1968, for example, relate to the Bureau's work with the League of Nations.

Scrapbook of press cuttings on a wide range of topics, including divorce law reform, imprisonment for debt, the suffrage campaigns, home work and the sweated trades, 'the white slave traffic', and any others.

Letter from P K Seaman of HMS Wolverine, docked at St Helena, to his father, 1 Jun 1851. '... I have already told you that we have caught 3 slavers ...'.

Autograph, with signature. 4 sketches of vessels captured by the Wolverine are pasted to the second leaf of the letter.