There are three letters from Lord Selkirk, one from Lord Dalhousie, and eight from Lady Selkirk. The early letters concern the Red River Settlement and the North West Company. The letter from Lord Dalhousie, 1824, concerns legal matters, and the two late letters, 1828 and 1833, from Lady Selkirk are personal in nature.

Consists of letter from Lord Selkirk to Captain Benjamin Walker dated 14 June 1816 concerning the sale of Selkirk’s land at Salmon River, New York, and his impending departure for the Red River.

These are letters from Selkirk to Miles MacDonnell, 1811-1813 and instructions concerning wages and contracts. Thirteen documents concern Lord Selkirk's conflict with the North West Company at the Red River Colony and Fort William.There is also a letter to Colonel Benjamin Walker, 1816.

The thirteen documents are depositions taken by Lord Selkirk concerning the conflict with the North West Company at the Red River Settlement in Manitoba and at Fort William. On 11 June 1815, representatives of the North West Company attacked and fired upon the colonists, and demanded the surrender of Governor MacDonell, who, to avoid the loss of blood, gave himself up voluntarily. He was taken to Montreal as a prisoner, and charges were laid against him by his enemies, but his case was not tried. These depositions concern this case.

This collection reflects Henry S. Chapman's relationships with a number of important figures in Montreal's political and business history, between roughly 1833 and 1853, the period following Chapman's return to London. A significant amount of the material in this collection is related to the 1837-1838 Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions (especially in Montreal), as well as events occurring immediately after the uprisings.

Consists of copies of original material, chiefly correspondence, arranged roughly by date. The contents of letters (1835-1853) include business partnerships, political reform, and personal news. Significant correspondents include Louis-Joseph Papineau, Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Jacob Dewitt, François-Antoine Larocque (of Laroque and Bernard), Joseph Perreault, and Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan. There is also a partial manuscript on Canadian history and pages from a scrapbook, both dating from the 1830s.

The collection consists of falls into two series: Papers and Diaries. The Papers primarily reflect Brown's political concerns and activities in Montreal between 1832 and 1838. They include excerpts from the Vindicator newspaper, notes, resolutions, memoranda and speeches, as well as letters to Brown concerning Florida politics and the United States' negotiations with Native peoples, 1841-1843. There are also business documents and letters; essays by Brown on the 1837-1838 Lower Canada Rebellion and the annexation of Canada; and a journal kept during an ocean voyage in 1838.

The Diaries consist of seven notebooks written in pencil, or perhaps more properly dictated, by Brown in 1887-1888. They were transcribed by F. J. Nobbs in 1987.

McDonald's correspondence, 1791-1860, mostly concerns business and property matters, but also includes personal correspondence. There are statements of account with McTavish, Frobisher & Co., 1799; with McTavish, Fraser & Co., 1803-1804; with McTavish, McGillivray & Co., 1808-1809. There are two volumes of autobiographical notes assembled in 1859 and covering the period 1791-1816.

There is a second copy of the autobiography, probably transcribed in the late 19th century. Written on the front fly leaf is the name: A.E. MacDonald. It has 63 leaves, and there are minor textual variants.

Fonds consists of one manuscript album of poetry, belonging to the Marchioness Townshend. Contains various genres of poetry in English, written between 1769 and 1771, including "comic poems on various occasions." Quarto manuscript written on laid paper in a neat scribal hand in brown ink throughout.

Fonds relates to a dining club, the Philogastric Institute of McGill, and include correspondence, principally from Richard Pennington to John Bland, as well as printed menus.

Fonds consists of six letters, with four manuscript letters from Rilke written between 1896 and 1922 and two discussing letters discussing these. The four letters from Rilke are addressed to various correspondents, including on 8 November 1896 to the author Gabriele Reuter regarding her book, 15 October 1904 to Anette Vedel, and 9 July 1907 to an unidentified correspondent. The fourth letter dates likely from August or September 1922 and is addressed to Elfriede Nicolaus. The two later letters which discuss the Rilke letters include one dated 13 December 1954 from Hedvig Wahlgren regarding the date of the 1922 letter to Nicolaus and one dated 29 November 1955 from Ruth Fritzsche (née Rilke) to McGill Librarian Richard Pennington.