The fonds includes a collection of AIDS activism materials, with an emphasis on its manifestation in Canada's visual art world, through the collections of Mr. John A. Schweitzer and others. Several of the documents have been signed by either John A. Schweitzer or Robert Mapplethorpe. The materials in the collection include posters, press releases, conference programs, exhibition catalogues, exhibition invitations, exhibition ephemera, programs, brochures, tear-sheets, auction catalogues, and reviews.

Collection includes the Minute Books of the Committee of Management of the Hospital, 1844-1926; a letter book, 1886-1896; Annual Reports 1887-1926; Medical Board Minutes, 1905-1918; Record of Pupil Nurses from R.V.H., 1908-1923; Annual Reports of the Auxiliary Board, Women's Pavillion, 1929-1943; Obstetrical and Gynaecological Report of the Royal Victoria Montreal Maternity Hospital, 1950-1960 and a copy of "Royal Victoria Montreal Maternity Hospital" by C.V. Barrett and J.R. Fraser, 1943.

Collection includes a scrapbook and a file of memorabilia of Dr. Anderson and his family, 1894-1952. It contains letters, menus, programmes, certificates, a manuscript of a poem, a contract to purchase, ferrotypes, and many newspaper clippings.

The collection contains business and family correspondence, land grants, financial and judicial records, etc. of the seigneurial families Chartier de Lotbinière, Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Lefebvre de Bellefeuille, Lemoyne de Longueuil, Lambert Dumont, Chaussegros de Léry, Hertel, Harwood, and of allied families. Much of the material concerns the Seigneurie de Vaudreuil. Other material include correspondence (1809-1821) with Joseph Bouchette; extracts from the registers (1667, 1732) of the Conseil Souverain and the Conseil Superieur; and documents concerning Newton Township, the Seigneurie des Mille-Iles.

Contains copies of fur trade documents bearing on the Mandan-Hidatsa trade with North West Company posts in central Canada, 1793-1805. Includes the journals of John Macdonell (McGill), David Thompson (Archives of Ontario), François-Antoine Larocque (LAC & Université de Montréal, Baby Collection. Draft before publication of: Early fur trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818 : the narratives of John Macdonell, David Thompson, Franc̦ois-Antoine Larocque, and Charles McKenzie / edited and with an introduction by W. Raymond Wood and Thomas D. Thiessen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c1985.

Collections consists of holiday greeting cards. Description is forthcoming and will be published as it becomes available.

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 fonds present extremely rich source for the study of Montreal and Quebec social and legal history. The fonds (mainly 1820-1890) comprises of judicial diaries or judges' bench books, which contain unique information: the opinions and memoranda of judges and lawyers of the Lower Canada and the Quebec Superior Court written down in the course of trials. They reflect the judge's interpretation of the law, his reaction to arguments and they show the background to official verdicts. The fonds contain bench books of Judges Robert Mackay (1871-1882), Andrew Stuart (1859-1885), Frederick Torrance (1869-1880). There are also record books of several law firms including Rose and Holmes (1840-1850), and Torrance and Morris (1850-1875). Included is also administrative correspondence, factums on various Montreal judges and lawyers, dockets and other records of law firms, legal authority books, commonplace books and other notes of individual lawyers. Present is also small number of lecture notes by lecturers in the Faculty of Law, student notes, scrapbooks as well as legal notes of unknown provenance. The bench books are in bound volume arranged in chronological order, the correspondence and authorities books are arranged by name or subject. There are contemporary indexes to the bench books of F. Torrance and R. Mackay.

This collection consists of materials dated from approximately 1850-1981, but predominantly from 1913-1940, relating to Dr. Casey Albert Wood’s research, writing, correspondence, and personal interest concerning ornithology, vertebrate zoology, memoir and family history, Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Library collection development, ophthalmology, politics, and current events. Materials relate chiefly to Wood’s “Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology” (1921-1956), falconry (1930s), his unpublished memoir (1930s), the development of McGill University’s Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Libraries (1918-1941), the history of ophthalmology (1925-1936), “Fundus Oculi” (1911-1934), his travels and research expeditions studying birds in their natural habitat (1920-1940), political interests, and correspondence relating to these activities and subjects.

There are approximately 2902 incoming and outgoing pieces of correspondence including letters, postcards, notes, telegrams, and cards. Series 1) Research and writing, contains the largest volume of correspondence relating to “the Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology.” While Series 2) Research trips, contains the largest portion of photographs. Other materials in this collection include research notes, manuscripts, page and galley proofs, book and article reprint publications, postcards, artwork, glass plate negatives, book plates, palm leaf manuscripts, artefacts, printed ephemera, clippings, journals, and administration and financial records relating to Wood’s publications or the Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Libraries.

There are gaps within this collection relating to geographic locations, as not all locations Wood is known to have visited are represented or are only minimally represented. Asian countries, such as China or Japan, are not represented in this collection. While geographic locations that are prominent within the collection are Fiji, Sri Lanka and India.

The series consists of 1) research and writing (ca. 1850-1956); 2) research trips (1920-1937); 3) scrapbooks (1887-1946); 4) collection development (1918-1941); 5) published books (1907-1981); 6) artefacts (191-?, 1920-1937); and 7) glass negative plates (1924, 1927, 1930, 1956).