The collection is small but diverse with a broad engineering theme. Material ranges from an early proposal for the UK's first landscaped cemetery and specifications for the development of Kidderpore Docks in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, to architectural drawings of churches in Derbyshire and copies of correspondence between Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) and John Scott Russell (1808-1882) about the construction of the Great Eastern steamship. The collection contains several items of national and international significance including original drawings by Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) .

The collection was donated to the Library by members of the Hollingworth family in the early 1970s and in 2024.

Size: 10 boxes, c 286 items.

A catalogue providing contents detail of the Hollingworth Collection is available in PDF format.

View images of the construction and launch of the SS Great Eastern in the Archives & Research Digital Collections.