A. Kohar Rony, former Southeast Asia Area Specialist at the Library of Congress, wrote about the letters in his article "Malay Manuscripts and Early Printed Books at the Library of Congress" in the journal Indonesia, No. 52 (Oct., 1991). In this article, Kohar Rony refers to the letters as “a bound volume containing handwritten correspondence and letters with official seals to the Chief British Resident in Singapore from heads of state in what are now Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia."

Following the publication of Rony's article, Asma Ahmat an intern at the Asian Division of the Library of Congress in 1989/90, published a Malay-language catalogue entitled Katalog Manuskrip Melayu di Library of Kongres, U.S.A. (Kuala Lumpur: Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 1993). Asma Ahmat’s catalogue is perhaps the most comprehensive description of the collection. In this work, the collection is given the designation “JAWI 12,” with the subheading “Koleksi surat daripada raja dan pembesar Melayu kepada Colonel William Farquhar, Residen Singapura,” which can be translated as “A Collection of letters from Malay kings and notables to Colonel William Farquhar, Resident of Singapore.” 

In addition to Asma, a scholar who has produced a significant body of work on the collection is Annabel Teh Gallop. Gallop's work constitutes the most in-depth study of letters in the collection. She has transliterated and translated eight letters in the collection: Items 16, 17, 35, 36, and 40 in Legacy of the Malay Letter=Warisan Warkah Melayu and items 26, 37, and 38 in her chapter, “Malay Sources for the History of the Sultanate of Brunei in the Early Nineteenth century: Some Letters from the Reign of Sultan Muhammad Kanzul Alam,” in From Buckfast to Borneo: Essays presented to Father Robert Nicholl on the 85th Anniversary of his Birth, 27 March 1995.

Another scholar whose work is relevant to the collection is Badriyah Salleh. His transliteration of Surat 111, "Daripada Tengku Pangeran Siak kepada Kolonel William Farquhar," in the Malay-language work, Warkah al-Ikhlas, 1818-1821, matches Item 31 in the collection.

One of the most recent pieces of scholarship of note on the collection is Gallop's far-ranging study on Malay seals that examines all the seals of the letters in this collection except for two (Items 16 and 35). She provides detailed information on 23 of the 25 seals in the collection including transliterations and translations of inscriptions, dates, images, and bibliographical notes where relevant. The seals examined come from the following places: Brunei (2 seals), Kampar in Pelalawan (1 seal), Kelantan (1 seal), Lingga (2 seals), Naning (1 seal), Pahang (1 seal), Palembang (2 seals), Pammana (1 seal), Riau (5 seals), Siak (3 seal), Singapore (2 seals), and Terengganu (2 seals). The two seals not covered are one from a Malay notable in Cambodia, and William Farquhar’s seal. This study can be found in her book Malay Seals from the Islamic World of Southeast Asia: Content, Form, Context, Catalogue.

In December 2020, Joshua Kueh, Southeast Asia reference librarian in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress, published a study titled “Malay and Bugis Manuscripts and Early Printed Books at the Library of Congress: An Update” on the provenance of the letters and other Malay and Bugis holdings in the Asian Division's collections. The article is available in Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.