Bowerswell papers, 1827-1944 1827-1890.

The bulk of the collection was kept by Effie Millais's brother George Gray until 1910, when he sent the letters to his niece, Mrs. Stuart Wortley (later Lady Stuart of Wortley). Her daughter, Clare, studied and transcribed many of them; upon Clare's death in 1945 the letters passed to her cousin Sir Ralph Millais, from whom the Morgan Library acquired the collection. Several groups of letters were added to the collection over the years. The love letters from Ruskin to Effie, and three of her letters to him, from the five months before their wedding in April 1848, were found beneath a floorboard at Brantwood, Ruskin's home, when some of the contents of the house were sold at auction in 1932. An antique dealer, Mr. Telford of Grasmere, purchased the letters and sold them to W. Sharp, who then sold them to Effie's daughters Mary Millais and Lady Stuart; these letters were then added to the Bowerswell Papers. The letters from John James Ruskin to W.H. Harrison were acquired at auction by Lady Clare S. Wortley.