The collection is a reference for scholars of the literary circle of James Boswell (1740–1795) (and Dr. Samuel Johnson) and their historical period, and as a possible source to illustrate publications of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell. Photographic holdings, mostly in color, include images of art work showing Boswell, his family, his circle, other figures named in his diaries and letters, his environment and other (e.g., political) contexts, along with images of Boswell Editions editors, student interns, and staff, roughly from the establishment of the Boswell Editions project in 1949 to the present.