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The Virginia Woolf Archive at the University of Sussex contains extensive manuscripts for 'Mrs. Dalloway,' including preliminary notes, multiple draft versions, and revision pages that document the novel's development. Early drafts reveal that Woolf conceived the novel very differently than its published form—initial sketches show a broader scope encompassing more characters and extended temporal range before Woolf deliberately constrained the narrative to a single day in June 1923. Manuscript pages show Woolf experimenting with narrative perspective, trying different approaches to representing consciousness before developing the distinctive technique of free indirect discourse that characterizes the novel. Woolf's revisions focused heavily on deepening interiority and developing the novel's stream-of-consciousness passages, with handwritten additions in margins and between lines showing her constant refinement of psychological accuracy. The archives preserve Woolf's notes on influences from contemporary psychology and philosophy, demonstrating that her narrative innovations were theoretically grounded in intellectual engagement with new understandings of consciousness and perception. Annotations in Woolf's personal copies of draft pages reveal her self-critical assessment of which passages achieved her intended effects and which required further revision. Letters to her publisher reveal Woolf's anxiety about the novel's experimental form and her defensiveness about its commercial prospects, showing her awareness that she was pushing against conventions of readable narrative. Scholars examining the manuscripts have traced how specific scenes evolved through multiple complete rewrites, with Woolf fundamentally altering characterization and emotional impact through revision.