Fonds consists of papers covering McNaughton’s years as a student and instructor at McGill, his army work during the first years of World War II, and his involvement in Canadian-American relations in the early 1960s. Materials from his McGill years include student lecture notes on electrical measurements (1907) and mechanics (1908-1909), a copy of his M.Sc. thesis on the dielectric strength of air (1912), and two talks given to the McGill Electrical Club on high voltage (1912) and on air as an insulator (1913). Six files of notes, drafts, charts and some correspondence document McNaughton's publications and inventions in the field of electrical insulation and transformers between 1912 and 1914.

Apart from C.O.T.C. lectures in artillery (1913), most of McNaughton's military papers date from 1939 to 1943. They consist entirely of typescript, printed reports and manuals by McNaughton on artillery and ballistics. Canadian-American relations are the subject of McNaughton's address to the Royal Canadian Institute on the St. Lawrence Seaway (1961). Also found in the fonds is a reprint of his article in the International Journal (1962-1963) on the proposed Columbia River Treaty.