Collection consists chiefly of an album of photographs and clippings compiled by Cecile (Burroughs) Masson. Captions date the photographs to between 1915 and 1940, with one earlier photograph from 1883 that depicts Cecile and Rodrigue Masson's wedding. Many of the personal photographs depict members of the Masson family taken in Terrebonne, Quebec (where the Masson family home was located), in Ottawa, and during travels to Italy, London, the south of France. There are 28 leaves of full page plates of travel photographs from France, Italy, and Africa. Also included in the album are postcards and newspaper clippings. One series of postcards depicts architecture in Terrebonne, Quebec. The clippings include a letter to the editor written by L. R. Masson (Mrs. L. A. Globensky) and published in the Montreal Star, 1939. Other clippings relate to the S-Plan, a bombing campaign by the Ireland Republic Army, in 1939, as well as the British royal family. The album is half bound in faux black morocco and pebbled cloth boards with the initials C. M. stamped in gilt on the front cover. A caption at the head of the second leaf reads "This album is for mother from Grace", with "mother" crossed out. An inscription on the first leaf reads "This is for my dear daughter Cecile. Many happy memories of the past - affectionately from Mother." The collection also includes two loose black and white photograph portraits, one of which is inscribed to Aunt Cecile.
The collection consists of a journal kept sporadically from 3 August 1835 to 4 July 1839 as well as a notebook titled "Mathematics, 1835;" a handwritten synopsis of the lives of Sir Herbert Taylor and Sir Charles Forbes; and a letter from Sir Charles Forbes to Lord John Russell, 1848, concerning Charles J. Briscoe and his family. It includes two black-and-white photographs of Charles J. Briscoe, a typewritten list of the "Loan collection of Mr. John Kerr", and a list of the lectures of the Philosophical and Geological Society by S. Frye, President, dated November 7, 1841.
Collection consists of Canadiana assembled by Charles Kadwell: Canadiana: or, A medley of sundry matters in print and manuscript, relating principally to the Canadas; (during the period of the rebel-lions;) the other British North American colonies; and the neighbouring United States; with views, maps, plans, portraits, &c. and private journals. 2 vol. Folio. Vol 1 includes "Remarks during a voyage from London to Montreal in the year 1832"; "Notes during a trip from Montreal to Upper Canada... 3rd-18th August 1838"; "Calendar of remarkable events relating to British North America and the United States". Mostly cuttings from newspapers. A pedigree of the Kadwell family has been inserted by L.G. Macdonald, Q.C., and annotated by Robert Howard. Vol. 2, mostly newspapers.
The Charles Reiner Collection consists of correspondence, newspaper reviews and clippings, performance programmes, personal documents including legal material, photographs, writings, published and unpublished music by Reiner and other composers, audio and visual recordings of Reiner and other performers, books, and awards. Of particular interest is correspondence from Rudolf Serkin, Alfred Cortot, and Kurt Waldheim; legal documents from both before and after Reiner’s immigration to Canada; and the extensive collection of programmes and newspaper clippings that document Reiner’s extensive performance career.
The Coppenrath Collection of Voyageurs Contracts for the North West Company partners contains 52 contracts for the period from approximately 1800 to 1821. These document the terms of engagement for men going into the North West . Voyageur contracts are of particular interest for study of the fur trade, Canada's first major industry, because they document the conditions of employment for many of the journeymen ("engagés") involved in the trade, both those who worked on the Ottawa River and those who "wintered" in the North West. The contracts are dated from 1800 to 1821 with printed forms from before 1800 being used in some cases. A significant number of outfitters are included namely the firm of McTavish, McGillivrays & Co. with various partners including John Ogilvy and Thomas Thain, Pierre de Rocheblave and earlier partnership – McTavish, Frobisher & Co. As well, there are contracts with lesser known outfitters. These contracts provide not only the names of the "engagés" but usually their place of residence and the conditions and terms of their employment.
Manuscript copy from shorthand notes of proceedings in the Court of Queen's Bench, 12 January, 1839 to 25 January, 1839, concerning an appeal for the release of 12 Canadians from a transportation sentence for taking part in the 1837 Rebellion.
Collection consists of six account books dating from the 1830s to the 1860s, including ledgers and daybooks, used and kept primarily by Enoch Curtis for his leather tanning business. There are also some loose accounts and notes on small sheets of paper. The ledgers use a single-entry bookkeeping method in £sd. They are organized by individual merchant account, with records of debits (purchases or expenditures made) and credits (payments or goods received). Parallel underlining and Xs indicate when an account has balanced. The collection also includes some records related to Stella Curtis from the 1890s, including one letter and two sheets of math problems marked Clarenceville Model School.
The David Hume Collection contains letters and other ephemera brought together from multiple acquisitions. The principal manuscripts are found in is the bound volume containing letters from David Hume to the Comtesse de Boufflers. There are also letters from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others for a total of 59 letters. This collection of letters was the basis for the anonymously edited Private Correspondence of David Hume with Several Distinguished Persons, Between the Years 1761 and 1776. Now First Published From the Originals. (London: Printed for Henry Colburn and Co., 1820.) One of the McGill copies of this book belonged to the Montreal lawyer and book collector Frederick Griffin (1798-1877). In addition to this volume there are eight other Hume letters. Some of these have been published by Professor Klibansky and Ernest C. Mosser in New Letters of David Hume. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954). Finally, there are photographic copies of Hume manuscripts held by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and typed copies of official letters on Canada from the manuscripts of Sir Mark Dalrymple.
The collection consists of an inventory list; a volume labelled "Equipment. Steamer Relief / Pontoons & Wrecking Plant / Lower St. Lawrence / 19 May 1882 - 22 February 1883," containing 22 used pages.; a volume labeled " Wrecks & Disasters," a scrapbook of clippings and printed documents, 1882-1884, with 39 used pages; a blank "Share Subscribers Register" consisting of 6 pages; and a "Winter Navigation of River St. Lawrence / Copy of Log of Steamer 'Folger,' of the Dominion Salvage and Wrecking Co., Montreal, 1883, containing 12 pages.
