The Sonde Collection provides a thirty-five year span of documentation for a Montreal-based Canadian experimental musical group who were very active electroacoustic composers and performers in the 70s and 80s. Sonde (formerly named MUD, Musical Design), created and played sound sources in Quebec, Canada and Europe. Sonde’s compositions were generally conceived for live performance on original sound sculptures. Using meditative improvisation, the group produced new music with sounds created by electroacoustic amplification and transformation.
The Sonde Collection is divided into 26 series and contains approximately 1,900 items. The majority of the collection consists of correspondence, concert posters and programs, and audio and video recordings. Activities of the Sonde group are described together as Sonde Papers and the activities of Charles de Mestral, a founding member of the group as Charles de Mestral Papers.
In the Sonde Papers, whenever it has been possible to do so, each item is referenced to the events listing, a numbered, chronological listing of events created by the group, entitled: ACTIVITES DU GROUPE SONDE (1975-2010) / Sonde Activities (1975-2010). The Sonde Papers include posters, programmes, scores, photographs, audio and video recordings.
The Charles de Mestral Papers are the personal items of Charles de Mestral, a member of the Sonde group from its inception. Whenever it has been possible to do so, each item is referenced to the events listing entitled: RÉALISATIONS DANS LE DOMAINE DE L’INSTALLATION SONORE (1985-2013, Charles de Mestral) / Sound Installations (1985-2013, Charles de Mestral) a numbered, chronological list of activities of Charles de Mestral. The Charles de Mestral Papers include scores, correspondence, installation plans, clippings, audio recordings and publications.

The collection consists of books, periodicals, and published ephemera related to alternative media between roughly the 1960s and 1998. The collections has a special focus on Quebec alternative, grassroots, and political publications as well as journalism trade publications and ephemera, and union and labour movement publications. Some publications are from Cuba and China, including Cuban calendars and some documents, books, and newspapers on China.

Typed transcriptions of Charles McKenzie’s narratives about the Indigenous people of MIssouri, draft and revised draft before publication; Alexander Henry’s account entitled: “Account of a visit to the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians in 1806”; and John Macdonell’s “The Red River”. Also includes drafts for work entitled, "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, 1985.

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.

The collections including here were orginally donated to the Phonothèque québécoise by Michel Décarie, Maryvonne Kendergian (Kendergi), Réal La Rochelle, Robert Daudelin, Raymond Gervais, Nicole Guilleret and Philippe Trolliet.

A history of the collections and information about the donors can be viewed here: https://web.archive.org/web/20191203205045/http://www.phonotheque.org/Inventaires/CollectionsPhono-Inv.html

The collection consists of programs and recordings of ensemble performances (including opera) by students, faculty members, and guest artists associated with the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and performed at one of the School's halls (Pollack Hall, Redpath Hall, Tanna Schulich Hall, and Clara Lichtenstein Hall), as well as some performances at venues outside McGill.

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.

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.