Gould's papers fall into two series. Family correspondence covers the years 1856 to 1860, when Joseph and his brother Charles were travelling in Europe, and consists of letters home from both young men, and their parents' replies. Manuscript music comprises two volumes of church anthems, with some organ music; some are original compositions by Gould and Samuel Warren. Related to this is Gould's brief manuscript account of the origin of the Mendelssohn Choir. Some family photographs are also included.

The Montreal Mendelssohn Choir Collection comprises several volumes of sheet music from the Choir’s library. The choral folios were compiled and bound into eight volumes at the time of their donation to McGill University in 1895. The estate of D. Torrance Fraser, a former Choir member, donated another four volumes of choral music in 1926 and 1927. Three volumes contain second copies of the pieces from the Choir’s library donated thirty years prior; the fourth volume donated in 1927 contains a number of pieces performed by the Choir but not found in the seven extant volumes from the Choir’s library.

The collections including here were orginally donated to the Phonothèque québécoise by Michel Décarie, Maryvonne Kendergian (Kendergi), Réal La Rochelle, Robert Daudelin, Raymond Gervais, Nicole Guilleret and Philippe Trolliet.

A history of the collections and information about the donors can be viewed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20191203205045/http://www.phonotheque.org/Inventaires/CollectionsPhono-Inv.html

The Richard Coulter Collection provides extensive documentation for a period of approximately thirty years in the history of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It constitutes an invaluable resource for research in Canadian music culture, and the CBC in particular and prominent Canadian composers and performers. The Richard Coulter Collection consists of the radio scripts, production information and publicity connected with programs and program series commissioned, developed and broadcast on CBC Radio in Canada in the 60s, 70s and 80s. The collection also contains audio recordings of a portion of the programs produced. The collection features such prominent North Americans such as Glenn Gould and John Cage. It is divided into ten series and contains approximately 17,000 items. The majority of the collection consists of documents and correspondence from Richard Coulter’s CBC office files relating to the CBC radio programs, special events and talent festivals that he produced. These include radio and television scripts, correspondence, administrative files, project reports, concert programs, publicity, promotional information, press clippings, payment information, contracts, production and technical information, scores, and audio tapes.