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This fonds documents the administration, research activities, and development of the McGill Sub-Arctic Research Laboratory and its successor, the McGill Sub-Arctic Research Station. Records include administrative and operational files, research project documentation, scientific data, publications, correspondence, and related papers generated through the station's activities.

The fonds is particularly significant for documenting the establishment and early years of the laboratory, including records relating to its founding, organization, and initial operations. The records provide evidence of the evolution of sub-arctic research at McGill University and the station's role in supporting scientific investigations in northern Quebec.

Fonds consists of an album of chiefly scenic postcards. Roughly half depict the western regions of Canada and the United States, including: Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San Francisco, California; Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia; the Rockies; and Medicine Hat, Alberta. Other Canadian locations are represented including Ontario and Saskatchewan. European postcards make up roughly the second half of the postcards and are mostly from England, with some from Paris. A couple postcards feature cartoons or humourous scenes. One photographic postcard features kittens and there is one Christmas-themed postcard. Some of the postcards appear to have been sent between members of the Francis family of Headingley, Manitoba, including Lester Francis, Etta Francis, and Russel Francis.

The fonds documents Sharon Thesen’s personal and professional life as a poet, editor, and professor from 1961 to 1989. All records in the fonds were collected by Thesen herself, and are primarily composed of correspondence, journals, and creative work. Most of the creative work is composed of drafts and edited versions of Thesen’s own poetry, essays, and articles, but also includes work sent to her for review. While most of the records are textual, there are a small number of pictures and postcards that were sent to and taken by Thesen, and are mostly of a personal nature. Notably, a large section of the fonds is made up of letters that include correspondence between other published and acclaimed authors such as Michael Ondaatje, Christopher Dewdney, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Ken Norris, Judith Fitzgerald, Phyllis Webb, Gerald Burns, and others. Lastly, the fonds also includes Thesen’s journals from the mid-60s to the mid-80s which contain her daily activities, her personal thoughts, as well as some of her creative work.
The fonds is arranged into three different series, Chronological Files, Journals, and Personal & Professional Records, as per the internal organization of the records. The main forms of these records are textual records, but also include graphic/photographic materials and mixed media. The records are arranged chronologically and intellectually within the series.