The Harold Spence-Sales fonds at McGill’s Canadian Architecture Collection primarily contains project records related to Harold Spence-Sales' career as an architect and urban planner. The bulk of the records pertain to projects that Harold Spence-Sales worked on as well as corresponding financial, administrative and office records.

The fond heavily documents projects that Harold Spence-Sales worked on during the 1970s-1980s in British Columbia and in Quebec during the 1940s-1960s. Other projects that Harold Spence-Sales worked on across Canada and internationally appear intermittently throughout the fonds. The Oromocto community planning project that Harold Spence-Sales worked on from 1955-1958 in New Brunswick is particularly well documented. Harold Spence-Sales designed Oromocto to be a military town. Before He transformed Oromocto into a military town it was a defunct 19th century shipbuilding town. The Oromocto project is considered one of Harold Spence-Sales most important urban-town planning projects.

Apart from administrative, office and project records, the fonds also contains records that relate to Harold Spence-Sales professional activities outside of his work as an architect and urban planner. For example, awards and honors that he received and records related to his involvement in architectural and urban planning associations. Additional professional activities include: his involvement in creating exhibitions, curating architectural-themed magazines and periodicals as well as copies of publications that he worked on solo and in collaboration with John Bland.

The fonds also contains fourteen boxes of Harold Spence-Sales personal records. The personal records primarily cover Harold Spence-Sales interest in art, creative pursuits, family activities, family genealogy, personal finances, last will and testaments as well as his decline in health and his death. Within the fourteen boxes that have been cataloged as personal records, there are also materials related to Harold Spence-Sales professional activities. For example, awards that Harold Spence-Sales received and records related to exhibitions and artistic projects that he worked on.

This sub series contains a wedding transcript (1975) and 1 DVD (My Messy Life, 2008).

The collection consists primarily of manuscripts and typescripts of papers written on natural history topics, such as insects, birds, marine life, plants, and reptiles. Most of the documents concern the collection and cataloguing of specimens, and the identification of new species. Also included are research notes, notebooks, field notes, lecture notes, correspondence, off-prints, proofs, and galley proofs, as well as drawings and mock-ups of illustrations for printing.

The Philippines are the most heavily-represented country in the subject material of the collection, followed by other areas of South-East Asia and the South Pacific, including Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Taiwan, the Soloman Islands, and Hawaii. There is also material representing North and Central America, including Mexico, the United States of America (especially California and Alaska), El Salvador, the Galapagos, and Canada (especially Quebec and Newfoundland). Some works also relate to China, the British Isles, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, and Socotra (Yemen).

Significant figures represented in the collection include: Richard Crittenden McGregor, A.E. Wileman, Edward Charles Stuart Baker, Frank Spaeth, Casey Albert Wood, Averil Lysaght, Harry S. Swarth, Henry Seebohm, Henry George Vennor, Roy E. Dickerson, J. Muir, and Charles Fuller Baker.

Highlights from the collection include: a manuscript copy of Joseph Banks’ journal from his 1768-1771 voyage on the Endeavour, likely made by Maria Dawson Turner; a manuscript, and several annotated typescript versions of Volume 5 of E.C. Stuart Baker’s “Fauna of British India birds”; an assortment of Casey A. Wood’s research notes; annotated proofs, galley proofs, and a mock-up of Richard C. McGregor and Elizabeth J. Marshall’s “Philippine birds for boys and girls;” and a binder of ornithological notes recorded by G.G. Ommanney and others in the Whitlock Bird Sanctuary and surrounding district near Hudson, Quebec.

Many of the manuscripts in the collection were published by the Philippine Journal of Science; also included is correspondence related to publication in the journal, especially related to editing and corrections.

Collection consists of Joseph Crawhall's correspondence, notes, memoranda, and manuscripts related to his research on engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828).

Fonds consists chiefly of ephemera and correspondence relating to the work of wood engravers of Thomas and John Bewick of Newcastle, England, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The ephemera found in series 1 includes various examples of fine printing, including proofs and printed keepsakes featuring Bewick engravings from printers such as Havilah Press and Anchor and Acorn Press. Series 2 contains correspondence, chiefly between Geraldine Cole and booksellers, as well as general correspondence with friends and acquaintances. Series 3 consists primarily of bookseller descriptions and clippings and excerpts from catalogues describing Bewick works (generally with the catalogue cover appended to a loose page on which a Bewick item appears). Some are with accompanying correspondence. Also included in this series are documents listing all of the items found in the Cole-Bewick Collection at McGill Library. Series 4 consists of other ephemera related to Bewick and his life, including short biographical pieces, postcards and products featuring Bewick engravings and watercolours, and articles and clippings. The last file in this series contains 4 original letters from Thomas Bewick to various correspondents, dating between 1819 to 1825. Series 5 contains a number of subject files relate to specific projects or organizations, including the Bewick Society.

This subseries documents public addresses outside of the World Religions after September 11 Conference and contains Invading the Sacred: 2007 book launch (2 DVDs); an interview filmed during India Independence day in Ottawa (1996, 1 DVD); and a Samboth Society 2009 Inaugural Address video (2 DVDs).

The holdings of the CAC reflect Bland's dual career as educator and architect. John Bland was responsible for assembling the materials which now form the archives of the CAC. There are 71 projects from the John Bland Archive that consist of drawings, photographs, and reports. These projects are grouped under series based on Bland's architectural partnerships. Other literary material, such as his publications, lectures, and unpublished papers, offer insight into the plethora of subjects that captivated Professor Bland's interest. The archive is rounded out with articles by others on John Bland and his work, as well as his personal collection of slides, maps, and books.

The fonds contains the professional papers of Canadian-American architect Witold Rybczynski. They comprise textual records including book manuscripts and proofs, research materials, reviews, correspondence, and teaching material, as well as slides and digital files representing his career as an author and educator.

The collection contains 164 botanical and zoological paintings created chiefly by Elizabeth Gwillim as well as possibly by her sister Mary Symonds while living in Chennai, India (then Madras). The collection includes 121 watercolours of birds with inscriptions, 31 watercolours of fish, and twelve of flowers, drawn from life rather than specimens. The paintings reflect the sisters' time in Madras during which, as artists and letter writers, they created a substantial visual record of the landscape and inhabitants of Madras and environs. The paintings also reflect Gwillim's scientific pursuits, including her study of botany.

"The Real Ernest Dowson", by Edgar Jepson (ca 1908; later recast as pp.245-248 of Memoirs of a Victorian) is accompanied by a few items of correspondence and some verses by Plarr on journalism.