The fonds documents Sharon Thesen’s personal and professional life as a poet, editor, and professor from 1961 to 1989. All records in the fonds were collected by Thesen herself, and are primarily composed of correspondence, journals, and creative work. Most of the creative work is composed of drafts and edited versions of Thesen’s own poetry, essays, and articles, but also includes work sent to her for review. While most of the records are textual, there are a small number of pictures and postcards that were sent to and taken by Thesen, and are mostly of a personal nature. Notably, a large section of the fonds is made up of letters that include correspondence between other published and acclaimed authors such as Michael Ondaatje, Christopher Dewdney, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Ken Norris, Judith Fitzgerald, Phyllis Webb, Gerald Burns, and others. Lastly, the fonds also includes Thesen’s journals from the mid-60s to the mid-80s which contain her daily activities, her personal thoughts, as well as some of her creative work.
The fonds is arranged into three different series, Chronological Files, Journals, and Personal & Professional Records, as per the internal organization of the records. The main forms of these records are textual records, but also include graphic/photographic materials and mixed media. The records are arranged chronologically and intellectually within the series.

The fonds consists of the personal papers of Aimé Sydney Bruneau, including personal family and WWI correspondence, diaries, minutes, manuscripts, and Shakespeare manuscripts.

The collection documents the life of Katsuji Nakashima since his arrival in Canada in 1909. The material consists of a personal handwritten journal written on rice paper in ancient Japanese; a Dominion of Canada certificate of Naturalization issued in 1919; a passport issued by the Imperial Japanese Government (1921); invitations, bills and other ephemeral items (ca. 1910-1945); military photographs; an Internment Camp Ration Book; and other personal documents reflecting the civilian and military activities of Katsuji Nakashima. The collection also contains personal belongings such as Buddhist prayer items.

Fonds consists of originals, carbon and photocopies stemming from both the wartime and post-war phases of Currie's career. His wartime career is recorded in a copy of his battlefield diary for 2 June 1916- 8 February 1917 and commemorated in an album of signatures of the officers he commanded. Postwar materials comprise correspondence and speeches. The correspondence concerns various causes which Currie patronized and books for which he wrote introductions. His speeches (in 7 volumes, with some loose) are devoted to the war and its aftermath, politics, education, eulogies, speeches of welcome, Christmas and New Year's messages, dedications of war memorials and the like. Some are noted as having been written by Wilfred Bovey.

Correspondence, accounts, journals maps, etc., documenting Bissett’s career with the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Photostats (in C.1 and C.2) include Bissett’s journal and accounts at the Red River, 1854-1855, and a journal “Lachine to the Sandwich Islands” 1858-1859. There are also journals for 1859 and 1867. The original documents (in C.3) include correspondence with the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1858-1875, and accounts, 1860-1873. There are Bissett’s commissions as Chief Trader (1858) and as Chief Factor (1872), and a list of Chief Traders and Factors, 1855-1879. There are also some plans / maps, sketches, and photographs including a sketch of the Hudson’s Bay Post at Honolulu, ca. 1860.

Fonds consists of Mackenzie's journal kept on Great Bear Lake.

A diary kept by Reginald Edward Thompson describes his journey to the Rockies with Viscount Milton.

Selected papers of the Hart Family include a diary kept by Bernard Samuel Judah (an in-law of the Harts) during a voyage to the United States to visit his son Samuel, 1827-1828; a Jewish calendar belonging to Alan Judah Hart with notices of family births and deaths, 1903-1930, and few diary entries, 1917-1919; a few items of correspondence of Alan Hart and his family relating to family history, 1923-1972; some notes on family history, and 25 portraits (photographs, silhouettes) of family members from 1823 to ca 1960.

The Ross family fonds consists primarily of records related to the student achievements of the Ross children and includes student notebooks, news clippings, convocation programmes, certificates, and memorabilia of the Red and White Revue such as songs, photographs and original songs. Edward Russell Paterson’s student notebooks in geology, petrography and English literature are included.

In addition, there are two diaries of William Stieven Paterson’s from his travels through Civil War battlefields in the southern USA and a trip to Cuba; 8 photograph albums depicting the Paterson side of the family; 3 scrapbooks of magazine stories for children, poems and household hints; and correspondence between Dorothy Jean Ross and the McGill University Archives.

Scrimger's papers mainly concern his war service. His brief diary of the Ypres campaign, 1915, is supplemented by signals and military messages on troop movements and medical matters; Scrimger sometimes used the signal forms for additional diary entries. There are also a handful of letters and cables of congratulation on his V.C., certificates of service, newsclippings, and printed souvenirs. The remainder of these papers consist of obituary notices and tributes. Some are pasted into Scrimger's notebook of Professor Bier's clinic, Berlin, 1910.