This collection relates to Constance Babington Smith's research for her editions of Rose Macaulay's Letters to a Friend (1961), Last Letters to a Friend (1962), Letters to a Sister (1964), and her biography, Rose Macaulay (1972) and is arranged in the following categories:
Family background, letters, diaries and so on, original material 1865-1972, with copies of items dating from 1794 onwards. 121 items;
Family photographs, 1873-1960, watercolours, Rose Macaulay's address book and Christmas card list, 1944 onwards, with associated material. 266 items;
Material concerning Rose Macaulay, such as research, letters and reviews, 1959-1973, including copies of earlier material by Constance Babington Smith. 266 items;
Material relating to Rose Macaulay's works Bunkum (1924), Life among the English (1942), Miss Anstruther's Letters (1941), and They went to Portugal (1946), such as typescript copies of drafts and corrected proofs, research. 11 items;
Material relating to Rose Macaulay's other works: notebooks, 1940s-1950s, containing observations made on holidays, rough drafts of her final, unfinished, novel, Venice Besieged / Midsummer Moon and other late pieces; press clippings and typescripts of articles and reviews, c 1931-1958, MSS clippings and typescripts of poems, juvenilia, 1905-1955, Christmas cards designed by Rose Macaulay. 106 items, 1950-1958;
Letters from Rose Macaulay to her sister Jean Babington Macaulay. 213 items, 1921/22-1957;
Material concerning Constance Babington Smith's edition of Letters to a Sister, includes research, letters and reviews. 229 items, 1962-1963;
Letters from Rose Macaulay to John Hamilton Cowper Johnson, 199 items, 1950-158;
Material concerning Babington Smith's Letters to a Friend and Last Letters to a Friend, including research and letters of congratulation on publication. 462 items, 1960-1973
Letters and postcards from Rose Macaulay to various recipients, with a few letters to Macaulay. Much of the correspondence is in the form of copies made or obtained during research by Constance Babington Smith, and her correspondence regarding the Gilbert Murray collection at the Bodleian Library is also included here along with copies of Macaulay's letters to Murray; 628 items, 1907-1973.