The papers include accounting records of Gibson's estate, as overseen by his executor
Penry Williams; items relating to the public auction at Gibson's studio in the via della Fontanella, Rome, in 1868; undated draft letter from Gibson to
Sir Charles Eastlake detailing his bequests to the Royal Academy; draft letter from Penry Williams, Rome, to
William Boxall, dated 29 May 1869, announcing the despatch of works and property from Gibson's studio, and discussing the proposal to execute Gibson's last work 'Theseus and the Robber' in marble, including references to
[Felice] Baini and
[Harriet] Hosmer; inventories of Gibson's property and the contents of his studio; list of packages containing the Gibson collection delivered to the Royal Academy; letter from Elizabeth B. Thrupp, 21 Ridgway Place, Wimbledon, to the secretary of the Royal Academy, informing him that the writer had deposited some duplicate papers of Gibson's, which she had brought recently from Rome, at Burlington House; note to accompany certain papers of John Gibson, stating that they had been found among those of Penry Williams by his executor at Rome,
Arthur Glennie, with directions that they be sent to the Royal Academy, dated at Rome, 21 February 1887; and letter from R A B Preston, Executor to E. L. Bentham deceased, 2, Prince of Wales Terrace, Kensington, to the Secretary of the Royal Academy, dated 28 April 1891, presenting to the Royal Academy on behalf of the late Mrs Bentham the marble original of a plaster cast of a memorial bas relief, then in the Gibson Gallery at the RA.