Joyce obtained a run of Victorian journal publications including The Builder, The Building News, The Architect, Illustrated London News and The Ecclesiologist. He cut these up and filed them by architect, creating a useful resource of images and textual articles on the work of key Victorian architects, and documenting contemporary reaction to their design.
These files feature substantial amounts of lithograph print drawings of the exteriors and interiors of buildings, as well as b&w photographs and some images from modern journals such as Country Life, The Burlington etc. In these files Joyce also gathered together textual articles from the Victorian journals detailing plans for building projects, designs, and reports on their completion, as well as the activities of architects such as public lectures and their death.
The number of images filed for each architect follows their name in brackets. If textual articles are present the number is also stated. Additional material, e.g. letters and notes, are described where present. The extent field contains a summary of all such material.
These files were probably compiled in relation to Joyce's proposed dictionary of Victorian architects. He was to have written the text with Professor J. Mordaunt Crook but the work was never brought to fruition. A series of index cards forms the skeleton of Joyce's dictionary [see PRJ/6/4 and PRJ/6/5].
Joyce kept a similar sequence of files, largely photographic and far more extensive, on buildings by G.E. Street [see PRJ/1].