Fonds documents a portion of the literary activities of Sir Andrew Macphail with the typescript of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems by Lieut.-Col. John McCrae M.D. with the Essay in Character by Sir Andrew Macphail, originally published in 1919. The typescript is accompanied by a signed letter from Macphail. The fonds also contains a letter from John McCrae while on active duty in France to Carleton Noyes, Cambridge, MA, with an envelope postmarked 31 May 1916. Enclosed with the letter is an autographed signed copy of McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields.

The fonds consist of diaries, photographs, scrapbooks, photographs albums and ephemera created by or about Canadian nursing sister Clare Gass (1887-1968). A diary and a photograph album chronicle Clare Gass's experiences as a nurse with the Canadian Army Medical Corps stationed in France and England during the First World War. The diary contains entries dated between 4 March 1915 to 31 December 1916 and also features an early appearance of the poem "In Flanders Field," written by John McCrae during the war upon the burial of a close friend. It is copied out in the diary entry for 30 October, nearly six weeks before its first publication in the magazine Punch on 8 December 1915. The diary originally had ephemeral material originally laid in, including newspaper clippings, manuscript notes and letters, one photograph, pencil drawings, and ten dried plant specimens. These have been removed from the diary for preservation purposes. Her photograph album from the First World War begins in April 2015 with photos of the nursing sisters assembled for inspection before deployment and the sea crossing to Europe. The photographs include depictions of soldiers and nursing sisters, oftentimes in their huts, and hospital interiors from multiple hospitals at which she worked and visited. It contains photographs from various postings in Etaples, Camiers, Cliveden (England) Boulogne, and Rhyl (Wales), as well as landscapes, historical sites, and other scenes from the surrounding areas that she toured, including a trip to Scotland. Leaves 13 and 14 of the photograph album also contain the text of “In Flanders Field.”

Loose photographs also document Gass’s wartime experiences in France, as well the hospital at St. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, and Gass's transit duties in the Rockies in 1919. A series of photographs are from the visit of the Prince of Wales to Quebec October and November of 1919. Other loose photographs also depict wounded veterans, as well as personal photographs, including a portrait of Clare Gass at age 13.

Her childhood is also documented in the fonds by a photograph album containing photos from her years attending Edgehill School. The photos date chiefly between 1904 and 1905 and depict school exteriors, interiors, friends and classmates, as well as school activities such as Drill Class.

An additional folder contains material compiled by Gertrude Henderson, including letters to Clare Gass, some of her writings, and other ephemera, such as clippings noting Gass’s retirement, sketches, some of Gass’s poetry and stories, a memorial from King George to those who served in the war, and manuscript notes on Gass’s school and word record, including years and places that she was stationed. The folder also contains assorted later photographs of Gass.

Fonds consists of photographs and other items that document the early career of Isadore Hirshberg while studying medicine at McGill University from 1909-1914, including 60 album-sized photographs, a framed group photograph of Hirshberg and Montreal General Hospital residents, Hirshberg's framed provincial medical certificate, and two certificates of residency. Subjects include Hirshberg and classmates; campus and student life; photographs of staff, doctors, and nurses in hospital settings, including two photographs of John McCrae at the Alexandra Hospital; and various views of McGill medical buildings and hospitals, including the new medical building at the time of construction in 1910, the Royal Victoria Hospital around 1910, and the Western Hospital in 1913. Two photographs features the medical school janitor James "King" Cook, a fixture of the school and a favorite with the students from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. His wife was Frank Buller's housekeeper during Osler's time. Fonds also includes a large framed group photograph, Resident Medical Staff/Montreal General Hospital/1914-1915 by Wm. Notman & Son and Hirshberg's Quebec medical license issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec and dated July 1914. Descriptions of the photographs where present are in Hirshberg's hand except in cases in which there were additional descriptions in the album. These were copied in pencil on the verso of the related photograph.