The Boston College collection of John Henry Newman comprises correspondence, photographs, pamphlets and two commemorative portrait medallions. The correspondence includes over fifty letters sent by Newman to various recipients. More than half of the letters date from 1881-1890 and are addressed to George T. Edwards, an ecumenically-minded Anglican who was the secretary of the London Evangelisation Society. Eleven letters dating from 1853-1870 are addressed to William J. O'Neill Daunt (1807-1894), an Irish politician and author who was a convert to Catholicism. Almost all of the letters have been published as part of the series The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman edited at the Birmingham Oratory; unpublished letters have been noted as such. Of particular note among the unpublished correspondence are a letter to Dr. Ellis regarding administrative details at the medical school (at the Catholic University in Dublin); three letters to Mrs. Bethell concerning the schooling of her two sons Augustus and Henry, with general remarks on education and vocations; a note to the Dean of Wells declining to comment on the "subject of eternal punishment."

There are also portraits of Newman at various ages. Two photographs of Newman were received paired and framed with unpublished signed letters, one of which contains the text for a telegram sent from Leghorn, Switzerland on Newman's return trip from Rome in 1879 after being made a cardinal.

The remainder of the collection consists images of Newman on medallions, engravings, paintings, and photographs. It also includes a selection of pamhlets about Newman, as well as one pamphlet by him, "The Dream of Gerontius." There are also photographs of places where Newman lived and worked, including the Oratory at Birmingham, Campion Hall at Oxford, Newman's rooms at Oriel, and St. Mary's Church at Oxford.