The scrapbook which forms this collection is a bound volume containing around fifty illustrations representative of the subjects and style of nineteenth-century British book illustration. In the scrapbook are caricatures, cartoons, foreign scenes, social commentary, and hand-colored engravings.

Clinton Arrowood was a flautist and illustrator best known for his unique drawings of animals as musicians. The collection contains Arrowood's illustrations for musical events at the Peabody Institute and elsewhere, as well as drawings for children's books and other media. It includes original drawings, reproductions, clippings, and other documents related to Arrowood's career.

Ludwig Pietsch (1824–1911), a German critic, and Theodor Fontane (1819–1898), a German writer, maintained a long friendship. The Fontane-Pietsch collection consist of photographs, newspaper clippings and letters from 1845-approximately 1898. There is also an article describing the Fontane-Pietsch correspondence dated 1977. The collection is in German, though some English translations have been made.