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.

The fonds consist of a variety of textual materials created by Andrew Pyper such as published and unpublished materials, early creative writing works, story-outlines, drafts, agendas and diaries. The fonds also contains personal correspondence between Pyper and his publishers, editors, friends and fans. The collection includes working scripts for television and film adaptations of his novels. The photographic material mainly consist of Pyper’s early childhood in Stratford, time at McGill University, travels to the Yukon and Brazil, and living in Toronto.

Fonds consists of notebook kept by Tetley chiefly during the Second World War, while on active duty with the Canadian Royal Navy. The first entry is dated August 14, 1945, and begins with Tetley reporting for duty. The diary records daily activities onboard. From February 21, 1946, entries describe daily life in Montreal and at McGill, with detailed impressions of friends and acquaintances, often with full names and addresses. The final full daily entry is dated February 28, 1946. Following that, entries record major events, such as moving to Quebec in summer of 1949 or convocation, with acquaintances made and Tetley's descriptions and impressions of them, often with names and contact information. Other events noted include Provincial Congress at Quebec, September 1950; "Soirée à la Marine," February 10, 1950; summer in the navy in England, 1951; Boy Scout Campaign, February 1952. Final entries are undated, but the journal appears to end in 1952. The fonds also includes some items previously laid in to the diary, including one black and white photograph of a coastline (laid in before entry dated Sept. 18, 1945), 2 loose leaves with lists of names and some addresses and a postcard, and 2 doctor's notes certifying Tetley's vaccination laid in between pages 92 and 93. Other items laid or tipped in include: invitation to McGill Founders Day Convocation 1950, with notes, and pages from address books.

The fonds consists of Dr. Harrison's journal of his travels through Europe studying Obstetrics and Gynecology from October 1937 to April 1938. A portion of the journal has been annotated by Dr. Fred Bryans in preparation for a talk he gave on Dr. Harrison in 1997 to the Osler Society of Vancouver.

Andreassen's papers fall into three series: personal materials, diaries, and professional files. Personal materials include family correspondence, 1929-ca 1932, and ca 30 cm of class notes and draft papers stemming from his student years, largely at Louisiana State. There are also files of private correspondence, some addressed to Mrs Andreassen, from the period 1975-1980. Andreassen's diaries cover the years 1936-1940, 1945-1952, 1962-1965, and 1968-1976. They record the working day and are interleaved with memoranda and correspondence, often of a personal nature. Professional files vary in nature with each stage of Andreassen's career, but correspondence and reports are consistent elements. To these may be added copies of surveys and inventories of the Louisiana Historical Records Survey, expense accounts and photographs arising from his work for UNRRA, records of archival deposits and drafts on an institutional history prepared as Archivist of CNR, and annual reports written as McGill Archivist.

Fonds consists of originals, carbon and photocopies stemming from both the wartime and post-war phases of Currie's career. His wartime career is recorded in a copy of his battlefield diary for 2 June 1916- 8 February 1917 and commemorated in an album of signatures of the officers he commanded. Postwar materials comprise correspondence and speeches. The correspondence concerns various causes which Currie patronized and books for which he wrote introductions. His speeches (in 7 volumes, with some loose) are devoted to the war and its aftermath, politics, education, eulogies, speeches of welcome, Christmas and New Year's messages, dedications of war memorials and the like. Some are noted as having been written by Wilfred Bovey.

The fonds contains chiefly the writings of Jeremy Walker on a variety of issues in moral philosophy and related literary topics. These writings, including anthologies, drafts of books and lecture notes, demonstrate the range of his eclectic interests from his formal studies of Kierkegaard and moral philosophy to his more personal intellectual pursuits concerning the literature of Kipling, Jane Austen, and Dostoyevsky, as well as the poetry of Woodsworth and reflections on Englishness. There are also examples of his published and unpublished poetry.

His more personal writings are in diaries that cover more than 20 years of his adult life and in contrast to his erudite writings on grand philosophical topics reflect his feelings and at times his dreams, on the state of his health, relationships with women, and recount the day-to-day events of urban travel and socializing.

His personal and family relationships are reflected by correspondence with family, friends and students, photo albums of travels to England and Greece, travel diaries document his summer activities from 1947 -1950, including lists of books read, drawings and photographs. As well, in a file titled Personalia (3) Apologiai Walker provides some personal chronologies, and reflects upon his writings and his life.

Scrimger's papers mainly concern his war service. His brief diary of the Ypres campaign, 1915, is supplemented by signals and military messages on troop movements and medical matters; Scrimger sometimes used the signal forms for additional diary entries. There are also a handful of letters and cables of congratulation on his V.C., certificates of service, newsclippings, and printed souvenirs. The remainder of these papers consist of obituary notices and tributes. Some are pasted into Scrimger's notebook of Professor Bier's clinic, Berlin, 1910.

The fonds consists of the personal papers of Aimé Sydney Bruneau, including personal family and WWI correspondence, diaries, minutes, manuscripts, and Shakespeare manuscripts.

The collection documents the life of Katsuji Nakashima since his arrival in Canada in 1909. The material consists of a personal handwritten journal written on rice paper in ancient Japanese; a Dominion of Canada certificate of Naturalization issued in 1919; a passport issued by the Imperial Japanese Government (1921); invitations, bills and other ephemeral items (ca. 1910-1945); military photographs; an Internment Camp Ration Book; and other personal documents reflecting the civilian and military activities of Katsuji Nakashima. The collection also contains personal belongings such as Buddhist prayer items.