The fonds documents Judith Fitzgerald’s personal and professional activities as a journalist, poet, and country music enthusiast, put together by Fitzgerald herself, documenting her work from the years 1965 to 1995. The majority of the records consists of research about individuals and musical acts, as well as other work-related projects that Fitzgerald was involved in. These include notes, drafts, and published work written by Fitzgerald, as well as various publications that she collected about the subjects and projects she worked on. The fonds also notably includes Fitzgerald’s creative work, including notes, drafts, manuscripts, and copies of her published books of poetry. Other materials include correspondence between Fitzgerald and friends, publishers, and individuals and institutions that she covered in her research. In addition, the fonds includes some financial records and personal records relating to Fitzgerald’s day-to-day activities and significant events in her life. These records include her marriage certificate, scrapbooks containing collected publications on herself, and notes on her autobiography.

Madame Fischer's papers are evenly divided between records of her own career as a performer and material on the Sarah Fischer Concerts. Her performing career is documented by newsclippings, tributes and programmes, reports from the Royal College of Music, and publicity photographs in opera costume. Most of the approximately 50 items of correspondence date from the last five years of her life and concern the disposal of her papers. Taped interviews, in which she discusses her career, include recordings from 1918 and 1925. Material connected with the Sarah Fischer Concerts comprises 143 programmes (1941-1975), press notices, announcements, and a report for 1973-1974. Photographs from this period show Fischer with government and musical celebrities.

Three scrapbooks document Birks' involvement with McGill, particularly with the Theological Colleges and the Faculty of Divinity. One contains newspaper clippings and correspondence (1912-1913) concerning the United College of Theology. The second scrapbook contains newspaper clippings and correspondence (1912-1948) on the establishment of the Faculty of Divinity at McGill. The third contains telegrams concerning the appointment of Sir Auckland Geddes as Principal in 1919, as well as newspaper clippings regarding the McGill Fund Campaign (1911) and the Patriotic Fund, (1914-1917). There is also correspondence about church matters and the Joint Theological Colleges and brief accounts of the establishment of the latter, correspondence, minutes, reports, reminiscences and notes document the establishment of the Faculty of Divinity in 1948. There is also a builder's contract and accounts for the Birks building on University Street and a draft fragment of a historical story or novel set in the 14th century about a Richard Birks.

The fonds documents Dorothy Duncan’s personal and professional activities as an American-born Canadian writer and painter, primarily between 1930 and her death in 1957. Duncan’s career as a writer is represented by scrapbooks, clippings, and photographs related to her published works, two unpublished manuscripts, and contracts and correspondence with publishers and her literary agent in New York. Her activities as a painter are documented in clippings, lists of paintings, and contracts with art galleries. The fonds also contains personal correspondence, including letters from friends, family, fans, and a significant number of letters from her husband, Hugh MacLennan. Duncan’s notebooks and diaries also attest to her personal and professional activities. They document her early adulthood in Illinois and her later life in Montreal, and include notes, agendas, and a ledger. The fonds also contains two albums of personal photographs.

Bovey's papers document his involvement with a number of organizations, his political, literary, and military careers, and his travels. His files as president of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild, 1930-1936, include reports, correspondence and speeches, while those connected with the Canadian Legion Educational Services also include photographs and printed material, 1939-1946. The C.B.C. series comprises programmes, draft speeches and letters, 1936-1944. His political correspondents include St. Laurent and MacKenzie King, 1940-1944. Speeches made by Bovey before the Legislative Council, business and other groups discuss a wide range of political, social and educational issues are supplemented by clipping files on Québec politics. Bovey's literary ventures generated correspondence and book reviews, as well as manuscript poems, 1939-1941, n.d., while his World War I military service is the subject of a small file of correspondence, 1915-1953. Finally, Bovey assembled scrapbooks of photographs and souvenirs of his voyages between 1930 and 1939. For Bovey's files as director of Extra-Mural Relations and Extension at McGill, see McGill Administrative Records, Record Group 44.

The papers contain printed biographical materials: newsclippings on Craik's appointment as Dean (1889), his resignation (1901) and his death, as well as printed addresses by and in honour of him. There is also a typescript copy of the Medical Faculty's resolution at the time of Craik's death. A letter from Craik to a Miss Charleton (1904) thanks her for assistance in compiling an obituary.

This archive contains letters and copies of letters, from the Wisdom sisters to one another, describing their experiences at Royal Victoria College, 1900-1908. There is also a letter from Stephen Leacock, accepting an invitation to deliver an address, and two from Hilda Oakeley to Mrs. Wisdom. Programmes (particularly of R.V.C. plays and sports events), clippings, and photographs are also included. There are also course notes for C.W. Colby's Renaissance history and William Caldwell's history of modern philosophy.

Correspondence 1921-1931 concerning Simon McTavish; official copies of legal documents including estate inventories, lawsuits over the McTavish estate, and Simon McTavish’s will; notes for Baylis’ study of McTavish; numerous petitions and newspaper clippings on the state of the McTavish monument and tomb (Peel St., Montreal), and a typescript of his text concerning Simon McTavish. Also two letters from Ignatius Donnelly, 1899, and a letter 1895, from J. Middleton to John Doyle about 19th century gardening in Montreal and the funeral of Judge James Reid.

This material features a small amount of medical papers: a manuscript of Bell's address on the subject of nursing training to the Alumnae Association of the R.V.H. School for Nurses, 1910; a letter introducing Bell to Dr. Viktor Hueter of Marburg, Germany, from Francis Shepherd, 1891; and a laboratory report to Bell from R.F. Ruttan, on kidney stones, 1900. Bell's map of the Riel Rebellion, 1885, is also included. A series of five lectures and papers on intestinal ailments, syphilis, rodent ulcer of the face, cancer of the larynx and kidney disease is supplemented by 19 case reports, 1896-1907, 7 of patients whose primary symptom was abdominal pain, and 12 suffering from sore or swollen throat. The remainder of the papers consist almost entirely of obituary notices, newsclippings and resolutions in memory of Bell and about half a dozen lettes of sympathy, including one from Sir William Osler.

Fonds consists of largely off-prints and clippings of articles on education and politics, particularly in relation to Poland (1916-1932). There are also printed copies of testimonials for his applications for the chairs of philosophy at Aberdeen (1900) and St. Andrew's (1903), an annotated programme for the London Conference on Re-Affirming the World's Moral Ideal (1922), at which he represented Canada, and a poster for his 1896 Shaw Lecture at Edinburgh, on Schopenhauer.