An archive of intimate photographs and letters of members of an elite group of early 20th-century intellectuals was released yesterday.

Cambridge University is hosting the collection of items which belonged to two members of the Bloomsbury Group, who were a collective of scholars, writers and artists who met to discuss literature, art and economics.

A spokesman for the university said the collection is made up of items which belonged to two of the group's founders, novelist Rosamond Lehmann and writer Frances Partridge.

He said there are thousands of pages of correspondence with key Bloomsbury luminaries, including author Virginia Woolf and novelist EM Forster.

A letter from Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell commented on the author's suicide in 1941.

"I'm not sure whether The Times will by now have announced that Virginia is missing," she wrote.

"I'm afraid there is not the slightest doubt that she drowned herself about noon last Friday ... Her stick and footprints were found by the edge of the river."

Personal letters from Woolf herself also appear in the assortment of works. One describes the news of the death of her nephew Julian, who was killed driving an ambulance during the Spanish Civil War.

The university spokesman said the collected articles also encapsulate a "fascinating glimpse" of the lifestyles, interests and opinions of a unique group of women who flourished between World War I and World War II.

He said these women voiced political opinions and enjoyed university education while many of their contemporaries would not have benefited from the same luxuries.

The collections will be available for viewing at King's College archive centre.