The collection comprises correspondence, drafts and research material relating to Clarke's books The governesses: letters from the colonies 1862-1882; A colonial woman? the life and times of Mary Braidwood Mowle, 1827-1857; Pen portraits, women writers an journalists in nineteenth century Australia; Pioneer writer: the life of Louisa Atkinson; Tasma: the life of Jessie Couvreur; Life Lines: Women's letters and diaries, 1788-1840 (Patricia Clarke and Dale Spender) and Rosa! Rosa! A life of Rosa Praed, novelist and spiritualist.. The collection also comprises material relating to Clarke's role as editor of Judith Wright's autobiography, Half a lifetime, published in 1999, including material from Judith Wright, correspondence, notes, drafts and reviews; research material on proposed writing on wartime censorship; research material for the chapter on Government House in Gables, ghosts and governors-general: the historic house at Yarralumla, Canberra; correspondence, notes, drafts and reviews relating to Clarke's role as co-editor, with Meredith McKinney, of The equal heart and mind: letters between Judith Wright and Jack McKinney (2004) and With love and fury: selected letters of Judith Wright (2006); papers relating to Steps to Federation (2001), which Clarke edited; Australian dictionary of biography research material, correspondence and drafts; and other papers relating to Clarke's PhD. thesis, articles and talks; correspondence, minutes and other records documenting Clarke's roles in the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, the Canberra and District Historical Society and other organisations, between ca. 1950-2010, and papers relating to her Medal of the Order of Australia.