This subseries consists of Robins's diaries from the time she was fourteen years old (1876) to the last year of her life (1952). This subseries is remarkably complete with the exception of the 1890's.

Robins did not always write lengthy diary entries, but she wrote often, which allows one to piece together many of her activities over the years. Sometimes she would skip days of writing in her diaries, then compensate for those periods by filling in the blank pages from memory.

While some of the engagement books in this subseries are nearly blank, others contain pages full of her notes and are helpful to use in conjunction with the diaries.

Subseries C contains notebooks dating back to 1873, when Robins was eleven years old. There are composition books from her time at the Putnam Female Seminary in Ohio, as well as records of books she read and a drawing book from 1879-1880. Also in this series are thirty-three volumes of small notebooks ranging in date from 1877-1940.

Subseries A contains letters from childhood friends, relatives, family friends, actors, actresses and admirers. There are also letters from Dr. Andrew McLaughlin of the Oak Lawn Retreat for the Insane in Jacksonville, Illinois where Robins's mother, Hannah Crow Robins, was committed for several years.

Robins and her husband, George Richmond Parks, traveled separately in their work, and many letters from Parks to Robins survive. The letters begin during their courtship in 1884 and end with Parks's suicide note in 1887. Folder 47 contains Parks's record book in which he recorded his theatrical engagements (date, place, play, part) for the years 1877-1886. Folder 44 includes newspaper clippings about his suicide.

Elizabeth Robins moved to England in May of 1888 and created an entirely new life for herself. She continued to correspond with her family but lost contact with most of her friends and acquaintances from her early years. The letters of the few American friends and relatives who continued to write after 1887, including Lloyd Tevis, president of Wells Fargo and a maternal cousin of Robins's, who sponsored her early acting career, can be found in Subseries B. Some letters to and from childhood friends can be found in two letterbooks, which date from 1878-1881. The majority of these refer to Robins's four-month stay in the Rocky Mountains during her eighteenth summer. [See also Series Three: Robins Family Papers.]

Subseries B includes the bulk of Elizabeth Robins's correspondence and reflects her activities -- acting, managing, writing, women's suffrage, and personal relationships -- for the remainder of her life. However, Robin's correspondence with Florence Bell can be found in Series V: Florence Bell; with Octavia Wilberforce, Subseries C, Box 29, Folders 4 and 5: "Backsettown" and Series VI: Octavia Wilberforce; and with her brother Raymond and his wife Margaret, Series IV: Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins.

Subseries A consists of the papers, mainly correspondence, of Jane Hussey Robins (JHR). JHR was Robin's paternal grandmother, and appears to have been the dominant female influence on the young Elizabeth Robins; in Robins's words, her "touchstone." Robins would later dedicate an edition of The Open Question to her.

Subseries B consists of the papers of Charles Ephraim Robins (1832-1893), and makes up the bulk of Series III. CER was an entrepreneur, a scientist, and politico-religionist. He also wrote and lectured on social issues such as prohibition. CER's papers include extensive business correspondence, which documents his ventures in real estate, insurance, banking, manufacturing, and assaying. In 1875, CER went to the territory of Colorado as an assayer for the Little Annie Gold Mining Company. His office was located at Summit in Rio Grande County, from which he also observed and reported on weather conditions for the United States Army. In 1880 Robins visited him at Summit, just as she would later visit her brothers on the gold fields of Alaska in 1900. CER wrote to his family about the West, religion, God, women's rights, landscapes, the family, and events of the day.

Subseries B also contains consistent runs of indexed letterpress books (outgoing) and letterbooks (incoming), in addition to 25 volumes of CER's personal diary.

Subseries C consists of the papers of Sarah E. Robins (1836-1869), an aunt of Elizabeth Robins. ER felt great kinship with her aunt, Sarah Elizabeth Robins, a poet, and noted on Sarah Robins's correspondence many similarities between their personalities. Sarah Robins appears to have been a role-model for Robins, particularly because of her interests in literature and education. [See the letters of Gorham D. Abbot.] This subseries also contains a letter from Charles Dickens and two letters from Edgar Allan Poe which Sarah Helen Whitman sent to Sarah Robins.

Subseries D consists of the papers of Elizabeth Robins's mother, Hannah Crow Robins (1836-1901). Hannah spent much of her married life with her Crow relations in Louisville, Kentucky, particularly with the Bodines. After the family moved back to Ohio from Staten Island, New York, some of her children were raised in Louisville; Elizabeth Robins usually stayed in Zanesville, Ohio, with her grandmother, Jane Hussey Robins. In 1885, Hannah Robins was committed to an asylum. In addition to correspondence, Subseries D contains Hannah Robins's diary for the year in which Elizabeth Robins was born.

Subseries E contains the correspondence of Elizabeth's only sister, Eunice Robins, who died before Robins moved to England.

Subseries F consists of the papers of Robins' brother Vernon. Robins brought her brother Vernon to England to study medicine, and he went on to open a practice in Louisville, Kentucky

Subseries G consists of the papers of on Elizabeth Robin's younger brother, Saxton. Saxton worked for the Alaska Commercial Company in Anvik from about 1897 until his death in 1901. Subseries G contains his Clerk's Record Book, which includes the minutes of several miners meetings.

Subseries H contains materials, including letters and notebooks, which belonged to Robins's Hussey, Crow and Robins relations. Notable are the various family genealogies compiled by family members, including Elizabeth Robins, and the family newspaper edited by Rebecca Robins. It also contains two letters, dated 1824 and 1826, to Ephraim Robins from John C. Calhoun.

Subseries I is made up of books which belonged to family members. Of particular interest is the volume of poetry by Sarah Elizabeth Robins, which was written under the pseudonym "Sidney Russet."

This material was removed from Subseries A-D and F. The letter after the folder number indicates which subseries it came from.

Subseries A contains the correspondence of Raymond Robins and Margaret Dreier Robins as well as occasional letters from Elizabeth Robins to Raymond Robins. Raymond Robins wrote faithfully to ER for most of their lives. His letters describe his social and political activism as well as his opinions of American politics and politicians. They also address family matters and reminisce about childhood experiences. Raymond Robins's interest in settlement work and the problems of the homeless is expressed in letters he wrote while involved with Chicago Commons and the Northwest University Settlement. A few typescripts of his speeches are filed at the end of Subseries A.

Raymond Robins also occasionally sent Elizabeth Robins letters he received and considered noteworthy. One example of this practice is the 1901 letter from Jane Addams about Abraham Isaak. On the back of this letter is a note written by Isaak, while it prison, to Robins written from prison (See Box 1, Folder 2).