Collection consists of materials created and accumulated by Bertram R. Davis on the history of Bristol and the romantics. Includes correspondence between 164 correspondents, 45 manuscript groups, research notes, photographs, clippings, articles, offprints, excerpts, and other ephemera. Also included is a file of correspondence from Bertram donated by Kenneth Curry and a file of correspondence relating to portraits of Southey donated by Dr. Warren U. Ober.

The collection centres on Robert Southey and Bristol and gives an overview of the social, political, and literary upheaval which gave birth to the Romantic movement and shaped the rest of the nineteenth century. The collection also contains material on Spain, Portugal and Brazil, Russia and Napoleon, France and the Revolution, as well as numerous works on travel in the British Isles and elsewhere. Also present is a selection of twentieth-century works which elucidate Bertram Davis' interests, friendships, and scholarly connections.

Almost all of Robert Southey's published works are represented, and almost all of these are in the first edition. Several works were formerly owned by Robert Southey.

The University of Waterloo has published a catalogue of the collection: Catalogue of the Bertram R. Davis "Robert Southey" Collection compiled by Jane Britton (PR4467 .U55x 1990).

One handwritten letter from Robert Southey addressed to a William Webb of Dublin. The letter was sent from Keswick and is dated November 8, 1826. Also includes an etching of Southey.

Southey's version of nursery rhyme, presented as a holograph poem in a letter to his brother, Captain Thomas Southey, St. Helen's, Auckland, New Zealand. Signed with Southey's initials.