The Labouchère Collection comprises a wide variety of documents, letters, personal belongings, photographs, transcripts, and notes relating to the Darby family of Coalbrookdale
The Labouchère Collection originated with the endeavours of Matilda Darby and Adelaide Whitmore (née Darby) to rescue and collate the early Darby family items. The two women were helped in this task by W.G.Norris, a former Coalbrookdale Company manager, who also did much to preserve company records and letters, and A.E.W.Darby.
Lady Labouchère, a descendant of Adelaide Whitmore, inherited much of this material and spent a great deal of time and effort adding to the collection in order to fully document the dramatic family history of the Darbys. She used much of the material as the basis for her books on Abiah and Deborah Darby, as well as generously making it available to IGMT and other researchers.
