The collection consists of fifteen volumes, primarily manuscript with some printed, containing over 1,300 culinary and medical handwritten recipes, plus numerous loose recipes also mainly manuscript. The documents in the collection originated chiefly from the Doncaster area of South Yorkshire, centred on Hooten Pagnell Hall. Many of the manuscripts and notes are signed by or addressed to Sarah Anne Warde. Series 1 comprises the fifteen bound volumes, two of which are printed works by female authors, while the remaining thirteen are manuscript notebooks. Two of these manuscript notebooks are attributed to Sarah Anne Warde, while one is attributed to Eliza Smithson. The manuscript attributed to Eliza Smithson contains table setting riddles (also known as an enigmatical bill of fare). Loose recipes are found in Series 2. This series consists of approximately 300 culinary, medical, and household recipes dating from roughly the 1780s through the 1850s.

Fonds consists of manuscript essays spanning the years 1847-1903. They comprise his inaugural lecture on pericarditis, reminiscences of early days of the Medical Faculty, several discussions of homoeopathy, and papers on vaccination, the registration of the causes of death and other topics. Eleven volumes of his manuscript lectures "On women's medical problems" are also included.

These papers consist of a typescript entitled "The origin of life on earth" by Macallum, apparently a chapter of a book, with a covering letter to Prof. A.S. Eve, 1930, and three binders of biographical material photocopied from books and journals, with photographs, sketches and bibliographies, prepared by his son A.D. Macallum, ca 1969-1972.

The fonds documents Ken Norris’s academic, professional and personal activities and career as an English literature teacher, Canadian writer and poet. There are also materials related to his university student life in Montreal. The records contains a wide variety of personal and professional correspondence between 1972-1990 with correspondents such as Endre Farkas, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, David McFadden, Cynthia Lapp, George Bowering, and James Polk. Manuscripts and notebooks document his writing activities and include rough drafts, edited drafts, final drafts, completed manuscripts, as well as published books, articles and his academic dissertations.

These papers comprise a fair copy, for the press, of "Gale on Redeemable Annuities", 1816, as well as copies of letters to his son concerning the supplement to his "Treatise on the Nature and Principles of Redeemable Annuities", 1817. Apparently neither treatise was published.

The collection consists of four early Irish manuscripts assembled by the Montreal collector Edward Murphy as part of his private library. The manuscripts include a copy of The Midnight Court (Cúirt an mheán oíche) by Brian Merriman, the Life of St. Patrick by John Chambers, Tri Biorghaoithe an Bhais (Three shafts of death) by Geoffrey Keating, and a fragment of an Irish vocabulary (Nuadhfoclóir bogcruaideach).

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 comprises of the research work of C.A. Brodie-Brockwell. It consists of unpublished manuscripts and notes on early Mediterranean cultures and civilisation, pre-Christian Hebrew, Semitic and Arabian culture, as well as investigations into early calendars and methods of counting (boxes 1- 6, and box 7, files 1-8, 10). Other files include: hand-drawn maps of peoples of Europe in different times (box 7, file 9); lecture named “A New Interpretation of the Parable of the So-Called Unjust Steward” (box 7, file 11); correspondence (box7, file 12); dictionary notebook (box 7, File 13).

The binders with manuscripts are arranged by subjects, discerned from their titles and content.

Very few of the McLeod papers actually concern the Observatory. However, his work for the railways and in Newfoundland is documented, as are his views on the education and employment of engineers. The basic record for the early part of his career is a diary kept from 1870 to 1875, regarding student days and early work on the Observatory. An essay, "Winter under canvas" (1868) describes an early surveying job, and a letter from his father (1872) inquires about his academic progress. His work for the railways is documented by three letters of recommendation, and two letters (one from Stanford Fleming) on the work of his colleagues in the West. The Newfoundland survey (1875) is described in McLeod's diary, a manuscript essay "Across Newfoundland" (1876), his printed reports and three letters. His work at McGill is represented by six letters (largely official acknowledgements of appointments), and McLeod's manuscript notes on McGill history. McLeod's concern with the engineering profession is reflected in two addresses on education and professional development, and copies of about a dozen letters to Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1906-1908), C.A. McGrath and E.F. Wurtele (1912), largely on the employment of engineers in the civil service.

The bulk of the Hunt papers consists of scientific correspondence, with a fairly large component of notes on scientific subjects. Most of the material dates from after Hunt's departure for the United States. With the exception of a letter of appointment to the Geological Survey of Vermont in 1845, all Hunt's correspondence (incoming, with copies of some outgoing) dates from the period 1863-1891, with the majority of items from the 1880s. There are a few letters of a social or personal nature, but most concern scientific matters: geological and chemical research problems, exchange of specimens, Hunt's theories and the controversies they stirred, his publications, negotiations for patents on some of his discoveries, the business of various scientific societies, and in particular the organization of the Geological Congress. Amongst his correspondents were James D. Dana (with whom he engaged in a heated quarrel over scientific theory), James Hall, Persifor Frazer, J.W. Dawson, and various members of the Geological Survey of Canada, such as G.M. Dawson, Robert Bell, Henry Y. Hind, and George Iles. Hunt's scientific notes mostly deal with special topics in chemistry, geology, mineralogy, railways, coal products and the controversy with Dana. There are also reading notes for geological texts, lecture notes for courses in geology, 1876, and chemistry, and indexes, apparently for Hunt's books. A manuscript on "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: an episode in its history", notes for a lecture on "People I have met", and sketches of family history represent Hunt's wider interests. There are also clippings of reviews of books and lectures by Hunt, biographical notices, reports on scientific themes and institutions, and news of the Geological Survey.