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The archive consists of correspondence, notebooks and diaries, press cuttings, photographs and other papers. The papers include diaries of Helen's youthful travels in Bosnia and Dalmatia with her family and also some documents pertaining to her later political career. The majority of the collection, however, consists of correspondence: over 2,000 individual letters, spanning the period from around 1914 until the 1960s and documenting many aspects of Helen's life and career. Letters written to Helen's mother from Cairo during the First World War illuminate the British community in the Middle East and the history of Palestine during the conflict. Letters written to Norman give insights into the land army, work at Woolwich Arsenal and trade union activity and also contain information about her brother Hugh Franklin and his suffrage activities at this date. The long and detailed letters to Helen's mother from Jerusalem, 1919-1932 document the history of the British Mandate as well as the evolution of Helen's personal attitude towards Palestine, Jerusalem and the Jewish nation itself. There are frequent references to the political situation and to figures such as Balfour and Herbert Samuel, along with personal observations about every-day life.