The collection documents the involvement of McGill faculty, students, alumni, and staff during the Second World War. It contains information on 5568 men and women on active service, including 295 women. It also provides information on the 298 dead, 52 prisoners of war, and 629 recipients of medals.

The greater portion consists of folders, index cards, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and photographs of individual soldiers and civilians. Index cards, documents and photographs were created and accumulated by Fetherstonhaugh and placed in alphabetical order within specific categories. The collection contains four distinct series: index cards; textual documents, including newspaper clippings; correspondence and articles arranged by subject; and photographs. The first series contains subseries reflecting Fetherstonhaugh’s original subdivision categories.

The index cards are arranged in the following groupings:

-Subversive activities
-Killed
-Prisoners of war
-University staff
-Macdonald College
-Army course
-COTC
-US
-General list A-H
-General list I-Mc
-General list M-Z
-Returned from active service
-Photos in extension file
-Photos on loan
-Women
-Civil

Other files in the collection include correspondence and newspaper clippings arranged by particular subjects; correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning the McGill War Memorial Campaign, 1947-1949; Fetherstonhaugh's account book of income and expenditures, and some vouchers, 1942-1946; McGill News articles, 1942-1946; correspondence, memoranda, invoices, reviews, and newspaper clippings, 1947-1948, concerning the book McGill University at War, 1914-1918; 1939-1945.

Fonds consists of papers covering McNaughton’s years as a student and instructor at McGill, his army work during the first years of World War II, and his involvement in Canadian-American relations in the early 1960s. Materials from his McGill years include student lecture notes on electrical measurements (1907) and mechanics (1908-1909), a copy of his M.Sc. thesis on the dielectric strength of air (1912), and two talks given to the McGill Electrical Club on high voltage (1912) and on air as an insulator (1913). Six files of notes, drafts, charts and some correspondence document McNaughton's publications and inventions in the field of electrical insulation and transformers between 1912 and 1914.

Apart from C.O.T.C. lectures in artillery (1913), most of McNaughton's military papers date from 1939 to 1943. They consist entirely of typescript, printed reports and manuals by McNaughton on artillery and ballistics. Canadian-American relations are the subject of McNaughton's address to the Royal Canadian Institute on the St. Lawrence Seaway (1961). Also found in the fonds is a reprint of his article in the International Journal (1962-1963) on the proposed Columbia River Treaty.

The Joseph Aspler fonds contains photographs, slides and negatives of productions of McGill Savoy Society, Red and White Revue and players' theatre.

The fonds consists of student essays, poetry and songs (1900-1903); geology and paleontology course I syllabus for 1896-1897; and a McGill annual prize article competition entry (1902) belonging to John Child Colby.

The fonds consists of student course notes and assignments, 1963-1978; computer manuals and papers, 1971-1979; and documents relating to the student film society, theatricals and musicals, including scores, pamphlets and props, 1964-1977.

The fonds consists of a scrapbook containing photos, ephemera, and clippings related to the McGill graduates athletic club, Winter Carnival, and copies of the McGill News, approximately 1947. In addition, there is a photograph of Convocation (May 22, 1946), a cardigan sweater and a MOC patch.

The fonds consists of a record book for Royal Victoria College 1933 reunions, a McGill Class Agents' Booklet and photographs relating to the 30th and 60th reunions for the class of 1933.

The fonds contains 1 memory book compiled by Doris Campbell in 1921. The memory book includes news clippings, photographs, cards, and written memories of life at RVC in the early 1920s.

The Alexander Wright fonds contains student notes, mostly for McGill history courses between 1976-1980 but also includes notes for 3 French language history courses and 1 political science course.

The Dorothy Nichol fonds contains artifacts and textural material regarding MSPE 1949, a certificate from McGill University's Women's Athletics Board to Dorothy Nichol and an Old McGill and program.