Austen Henry Layard wrote books and articles about his travels, excavations, later career and painting. Many of the publications were published by John Murray during a period of over 50 years.

The papers here contain the manuscripts and proofs for many of these works, including articles Layard wrote for the 'Quarterly Review'. There are also typescripts in this series, mostly relating to memoirs of Layard from his time as British Minister to Spain and Turkey.