In the second half of the 19th century, many archives of famous public, political and state figures, writers and scholars, composers and actors, artists, architects and military commanders were incorporated in the Manuscripts Department. The noted historian Nikolay Karamzin's sons presented the Library with his father's collection of manuscripts. Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov's great-grandson donated the archive of his great ancestor — the famous "Suvorov Collection". The large archive of Mikhail Speransky, the author of a broad programme to modernize the state system of Russia, was recieved by the Manuscripts Department as a donation from his daughter. The writer Vladimir Odoevsky's heirs gave his extensive archive, including correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, notes, draft autographs. In 1884, a son of Vasily Zhukovsky, a leading figure in Russian literature of the early 19th century, handed his father's archive to the department. The Library received Konstantin Batyushkov's manuscripts as a gift from the successors of the poet. In 1888, the archive of the great master of words Ivan Goncharov was given by the writer himself. In 1892, K. Grot donated the archives of his father, the academician Yakov Grot, and the largest figure of Russian classicism, poet Gavriil Derzhavin. The historian V. Bilbasov handed a large archive of the journalist Andrey Kraevsky over; the heirs of the writer and publisher Andrey Bolotov brought his handwritten materials as a gift.
Manuscripts of the famous composer Mikhail Glinka, donated to the Library by the collector Vasily Engelhardt in 1867, provided the basis for the collection of musical autographs. A significant number of musical manuscripts of Russian composers were acquired thanks to the assistance of the most respected Russian critic Vladimir Stasov, an employee of the Library.
Since the mid 19th century, a collection of maps, plans and drawings has formed in the Department. In 1869, it was enriched with archive transferred from the General Staff, containing 455 items.