This fascinating collection of pictures is deeply entwined with the artistic worlds of 19th-century Oxford. The city's romantic dreaming spires have inspired architectural draughtsman over the centuries, and this collection includes views of the university's colleges as well as landmarks around the city and Oxfordshire more generally. The collection comprises works by a number of highly regarded artists, including drawings by William Turner of Oxford and William Alfred Delamotte, and paintings by Frederick Mackenzie OWS, and stained glass artist Augustine Joseph Mingaye Richardson and his sister Rosa Mingaye.

With its architectural emphasis, it appears that the collection may have been in the possession of either the artistic Mingaye Richardson family or the Delamotte family: the collection also includes a number of intriguing albumen prints of architectural subjects, with high artistic merit, which bear striking similarity to the work of early photographer Philip Henry Delamotte—son of William Alfred Delamotte.