The John Murray Archive

Murray, who was born in Scotland as John McMurray, laid the foundations of what would eventually be a much larger and more influential publishing house, though he did help to establish many writers such as Isaac D'Israeli and also launched the English Review in 1783.

Over the years the publishing house produced books covering a vast range of genres, from travel to biography.

The John Murray Archive is a repository for papers and records of the business itself, including information related to the financial and administrative side of the company as well as some literary manuscripts.

Also a part of the John Murray Archive are the papers which relate to Smith, Elder and Company, another publishing house which helped establish the Brontes, Anthony Trollope, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

[6] While the collection consists mainly of the works and personal correspondence of significant British writers, there are many items of importance that are products of, or related to, the United States such as the letters of Herman Melville, letters and manuscripts from Washington Irving, and papers and photographs from Isabella Lucy Bird, author of The Englishwoman in America.

[4] Over ten thousand articles from the collection are private letters to and from Lord Byron alone and, as such, he is by far the best-represented author in the Archive.

[4] Both the incoming and outgoing correspondence series consist of letters addressed to and from John Murray publishing from the 18th century up until the 20th.

Smith, Elder and Company had been an important and influential publishing house in the 19th century and so these papers are significant in that they show the inner workings of a successful publishing business as well as in part detail the personal and work lives of Alexander Elder and George Smith, the founders of the company.

Included in this Archive are private letters between the company and famous authors like Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell, as well as other materials such as copyright agreements, receipt books, information related to the publishing of the Cornhill Magazine, and papers concerning the sale of the business when it was bought by John Murray in the early 1900s.