| Description | This series comprises personal writings primarily in the form of travel diaries and memoirs and recollections of family members but including personal diaries and notebooks; official documents including birth and marriage certificates; some family photographs; some writings and press cuttings relating to the political careers of the Chamberlain sisters' father, Joseph Chamberlain, and their brothers, Austen Chamberlain and Neville Chamberlain, and obituaries of family members; and other ephemera and personal items. Most of the papers were generated during the sisters' adult lives, but there is a small amount of material which relates to the earlier life of their father, Joseph Chamberlain, and to the later life of Hilda Chamberlain in the 1950s who was the only surviving sister by this time
There are series of travel diaries kept by Ida Chamberlain and Hilda Chamberlain covering the period from 1885 to 1952, and one travel diary written by Ethel Chamberlain in the 1890s. There is also a travel diary written by Beatrice Chamberlain in 1900-1901. There is an intermittent personal diary kept by Ida Chamberlain, and another kept by Beatrice Chamberlain, as well as some personal thoughts and observations of Hilda Chamberlain written in the series of notebooks she used as travel diaries.
Ida and Hilda both wrote memoirs and recollections of other family members, particularly their brother, Neville Chamberlain, but also their father, Joseph Chamberlain. Some of these were written around the time of their deaths, though Hilda also wrote some retrospective accounts of their lives and careers in the 1950s. Beatrice's personal papers include some writings of Joseph Chamberlain, including a memoir of his second wife, Florence, after her death in 1875, and ephemera relating to family theatrical performances in the 1850s and 1860s
There are birth certificates for Beatrice and Ida, and a marriage certificate for Ethel, and some family photographs largely relating to Ethel Chamberlain and her daughter, Hilda Mary
The series also contains some papers relating to Beatrice Chamberlain's public work, as well as to aspects of the political careers of Joseph Chamberlain, Austen Chamberlain, and Neville Chamberlain, including press cuttings and other ephemera. Some of these appear to have been gathered together between the 1930s and 1957, when Mary Endicott Carnegie (formerly Chamberlain) died. Other personal papers include a sketchbook and notebooks kept by Ida |