The nucleus of the collection was purchased by Henry Huntington from Charmian London in 1925. Additional groups of material were acquired by both gift and purchase from Mrs. London and later from literary executors Irving Shepard and I. Milo Shepard over many years. Further material has been acquired from other sources; the provenance of these items is noted on the individual folders.
The collection includes literary manuscripts of most of London's works, extensive correspondence files, documents, photographs, ephemera, and scrapbooks.
