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.

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.

Fonds consists of Dr. Ewen Cameron's teaching materials, articles, addresses, and a file of material regarding the Nazi leader Rudolf Hess and his claims of amnesia during the Nuremberg trials in 1946, as well as a couple files of biographical interest on Cameron. Teaching materials consist of notes for a seminar on tension and anxiety for military psychiatric personnel (1943). Articles and addresses comprise a draft, with letter from the McGill Medical Journal, an article on psychiatric education (1944) an address to the American Psychiatric Association on day-hospitals (1947), opening remarks for the World Congress of Psychiatry meeting (1961), and "Some thoughts on my years as director of the (Allan Memorial) Institute" (1964). There are also a few reprints of articles on memory, psychiatric training, and hospitalization. The file on Rudolf Hess contains trial transcripts, examination reports, Cameron's contemporary notes on Hess's condition, and some later comments on and correspondence about the proceedings (1945-1947). Biographical materials consists of a copy of Cameron's letter of appointment at McGill (1943), and a biographical sketch by Dorothy Trainor of the Allan Memorial Institute.

The Sir William Osler Collection, distinct from the Bibliotheca, is an extensive archival holding of Osler's correspondence (including eighteen hundred original letters), daybooks, accounts, engagement books, legal documents, book invoices, membership certificates, notebooks, lectures, addresses, newspaper clippings, photographs, books with manuscript additions, and miscellaneous loose items formerly inserted into individual books in his library. The collection also contains various family papers, including correspondence of Lady Grace Revere Osler and Edward Revere Osler.

Fonds consists of correspondence and literary manuscripts, documenting all aspects of MacMillan’s career. Biographical background is provided by his own notes on his life and family history. From his student years come certificates and testimonials in support of his application for a Rhodes Scholarship (1904-1909). His war experience is recorded in letters from the front preserved by his family, and by a personal diary for 1917. There are also approximately twenty photographs of Macmillan and his family taken between about 1905 and 1940.

Macmillan's correspondence includes files of letters to his wife (1917-1936) on his war service and political affairs; personal and social letters (1923-1929); political correspondence, including several letters from McKenzie King (1926-1946); letters concerning McGill, including a number from Sir Arthur Currie and from Stephen Leacock (1920-1947); post-retirement correspondence on McGill and public affairs; and correspondence concerning his publications (1920-1960). There are also files of invitations to events at McGill and elsewhere.

The manuscripts fall into two categories: political speeches and literary manuscripts. Besides notes and texts for his own speeches, there are also texts of, and newspaper clippings about speeches written by Macmillan for Sir Arthur Currie and others (1920-1950). Drafts and typescripts of his literary works are supplemented by notes, clippings and correspondence.

This fonds contains records and supplementary material covering all three major aspects of the life of John Wilson McConnell: business and finance, social and philanthropic commitments, and family life. The records covering these subjects stem mainly from ca1898 to the time of McConnell’s death in 1963. Additional financial records exist past this date into the early 1970s due to the trusts administered by McConnell’s legacies. The nature of the records is reflected in the following series: 1) Correspondence; 2) Scrapbooks, Journals and Address books; 3) Personal and Family records; 4) Philanthropy; 5) High society; and 6) Business Commitments. The records in Series 4 and 5 are further subdivided into subseries: Philanthropy and Fundraising (Hospitals and Health Care; Higher Education; War Efforts); Business Commitments (Promotion; Commercial Trust Co.; Montreal Star; St. Lawrence Sugar Refineries; Property Holdings).

The fonds chiefly consists of materials that Madeleine Parent gathered or created as a labour organizer and activist. The United Textile Workers of America series (B) and the Canadian independent unions series (C) make up the bulk of the fonds. Series B and C relate to Parent’s activities as Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian District of the United Textile Workers of America (UTWA) and the Canadian Textile Council (CTC), later the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union (CTCU). Parent’s union activities closely connect with Robert Kent Rowley, with whom she co-founded the CTC. Series C also documents Parent’s work for the Confederation of Canadian Unions (CCU), including files on member unions. Documentation includes meeting minutes, collective agreements, financial documents, correspondence, labour publications, and photographs. Series B and C also detail strikes in Quebec and Ontario organized by the UTWA Canadian District, CTC, and CTCU. Some of the strikes include the Dominion Textile Company Limited strikes in 1946 and 1952, Harding Carpets Limited in 1956, Artistic Woodwork Company Limited in 1973, and the Puretex Knitting Company Limited strike in 1978.

The smallest of the series, D and E, document the legal proceedings for the 1947 charge laid against Parent for seditious conspiracy and Parent’s campaign for Montreal City Council in 1954. Series F and H document Parent’s women’s and social justice activism, predominantly from the 1970s until the early 2000s. Among the records are files regarding her work with the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) and her advocacy for immigrants’ rights and indigenous rights, such as her support for Mary Pitawanakwat, an Ojibway woman unjustly dismissed from the federal civil service. Social justice files relate to various topics, including nuclear phaseout, workplace health and safety, peace activism, and human rights violations.

Personal papers, found in series A, include family documents and photographs, personal correspondence, and Parent’s agendas, research notes, and writings, as well as documentation related to interviews. Much of this material relates to labour and social justice activism and her activities as a labour organizer. The final series, H, consists of Rowley’s personal papers compiled by Parent. Included are files of correspondence, writings, and notebooks, as well as materials created about Rowley posthumously regarding his biography and tributes to him after his death.

The fonds also documents Madeleine Parent’s social and political activism, especially in the years following her retirement from the union in 1983, through correspondence, speeches and lectures, newspaper clippings, minutes, agenda books, 1948-2009, telephone journals, 1990-2005, photographs, as well as audiotapes of interviews and speeches. There are records concerning her involvement in public campaigns concerning such issues as free trade, 1987, de-indexing of family allowances, 1985-1986, freedom of choice/abortion rights, 1986-1987, Charlottetown Accord, 1992 and the human rights case of Mary Pitawanakwat, 1994-1995. Some of these campaigns reflect her involvement in the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.

Also included are documents pertaining to her personal life including family documents, correspondence, biographical information, photographs, and diplomas.

This fonds also contains personal and labour-related writings, including articles, letters to the editor, book reviews, reports on union activities, notes on Canadian history, and correspondence of Kent Rowley, 1942-1975.

Traquair's papers largely concern his work as a lecturer. School of Architecture lectures in architectural history cover the classical, mediaeval and modern periods (ca 1935-1936), while those on architectural ornament are largely devoted to lettering. Miscellaneous lectures, about 30 in number, were delivered between about 1924 and 1937 to various audiences, such as school children, extension students and members of art and architectural associations. They deal with architectural history, architectural principles both aesthetic and social, and other art forms (painting, carpets, heraldry etc.)

Material relating to Traquair's publications includes drafts of about 15 articles on many of the same topics as the lectures described above, and stemming from the same period. A special series of notes and manuscripts, together with some correspondence, illustrates Traquair's research on Québec arts.