When John Evans died in 1908, his papers were bequeathed to his son, Sir Arthur Evans, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1884 to 1908.

In 1927 Arthur Evans passed a large part of his archaeological collection to the Ashmolean Museum. It was either then or upon his death in 1941 that a selection of John Evans's papers were also passed to the Museum, largely the correspondence divided by author, as this was the section that most related to the objects. Some numismatic papers were also passed to the Ashmolean Museum's Heberden Coin Room, where they remain today.

After the death of Arthur Evans the remainder of the papers were largely bequeathed to his nephew, John Dickinson Evans, son of Lewis Evans, who in turn passed them to his own son; this son was married to Barbara Evans and on her husband's death, she passed the papers to his brother Arthur L. Evans Esq. of South Africa.

Aside from these papers, a small selection was also in the possession of John Evans's daughter, Joan; she bequeathed her papers to the Ashmolean Museum, but they were in fact collected by Arthur L. Evans and taken back to South Africa. In 1985 Arthur Evans made a formal gift of all of the remaining papers to the Ashmolean Museum.