The collection contains material dating from 1689 to 1936, although the bulk of it is eighteenth century. There are fifty-eight printed and manuscript volumes and four documents; the majority are English, but some are French and Dutch. They consist of signal books, fighting instructions, convoy instructions, books on the theory of signalling and sheets of private signals. There are also three mid-nineteenth-century merchant shipping volumes. There are a number of French, English and Dutch sailing and fighting instructions, 1689 to 1693; the majority of these are French and were issued by the Comte de Tourville (1642-1701). Also in French are sheets of additional signals, orders of battle, some printed and some manuscript, for this period. The eighteenth-century volumes include sailing and fighting instructions and signal books for the Seven Years War; among them are printed instructions issued in 1760 by Admiral Charles Saunders (1713?-1775), and signals issued in 1759 by the Marquis de Conflans. Examples from the American Revolutionary War include signals issued by Lord Howe (q.v.) 1776, 1782; by Rear-Admiral Richard Kempenfelt (1718-1782), 1782; a signal book by Lieutenant (later Admiral) Sir Charles Henry Knowles (1754-1831), printed in 1778; and a manuscript signal book used by the fleet under the command of Le Comte de Guichen (1712-1790) in 1781; this uses a tabular system with thirteen flags to each side of the table.

Administrative / biographical background
Vice-Admiral Lancelot Ernest Holland (1887-1941) was lost with the Hood in 1941. He bequeathed his collection of volumes and documents of signals of the Royal Navy and foreign navies to the Museum.