The collection consists of 10 ink manuscript maps and plans on paper, some hand-coloured, depicting the earliest settlements and fortifications at Montreal and Quebec City. The earliest dated document is a plan of the fort of Quebec and is dated 1635. The earliest document in the collection depicting Montreal is believed to date back to 1642. The maps and plans were prepared by Jean Bourdon, seigneur and surveyor for the French colony. Included in the collection is a plan of the earliest Fort Richelieu of which nothing had previously been known. There are also detail drawings of riverside fortifications, probably near Montreal.
Frobisher's papers comprise a letterbook of the North-West Co. containing copies of letters written by Frobisher from April 1787 to October 1788, two original letters to Simon McTavish, 1796, and one from him, 1787, business and legal documents, largely concerning the estate of James McGill, 1810-1834, and a diary, 1806-1810, mostly a record of where he dined.
Fonds contain the personal and professional dealings of the Papineau Family, beginning with Louis-Joseph Papineau in 1828, following through his descendents, to 1943. Dealings include land grants, social events, real estate, interpersonal and business related financial notices, notes on construction projects supervised by or funded by the Papineau family, and charitable pursuits. The fonds consists of the following series: Legal, Business, and Financial Documents, Ledgers, Account Books, and Notes, Correspondence & Personal Papers, Genealogical Materials. Majority of the files are titled according to creator rather than content and series are contained within chronological boxes (with the exception of container number 9 belonging to the Legal, Business, and Financial Documents series alongside container number 1 and container number 2). These materials were created for the purpose of keeping track of the interpersonal and business transactions of the Papineau family.
The fonds consists of manuscripts and drafts of literary compositions and other working documents, as well as professional and personal correspondence.
The collection contains materials related to a bicycle relay ride between Sarnia, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec, held June 15-16, 1894 by the Canadian Wheelmen's Association (CWA) under its president, A. T. Lane, an early importer of bicycles to Canada who is credited by many contemporary sources as the first person to ride a high wheel bicycle in North America. The relay ride was organised as a promotional event for the CWA's annual meet, hosted in Montreal that year. The collection contains a newspaper article from the Toronto Mail (June 16, 1894) detailing the route and listing the participants, as well as a leather travel satchel used to carry a congratulatory letter to the president of the Canadian Wheelman's Association to be signed by the mayors of the cities and towns along the route. The satchel is embossed with the text: "Sarnia to Montreal relay ride, 1894." The collection also contains a published programme from the CWA annual meet, entitled, "Our city and our sports : souvenir and official programme of the 12th annual meet of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association, Montreal, July 1894."
The collections including here were orginally donated to the Phonothèque québécoise by Michel Décarie, Maryvonne Kendergian (Kendergi), Réal La Rochelle, Robert Daudelin, Raymond Gervais, Nicole Guilleret and Philippe Trolliet.
