The fonds consists of books and other materials about Black people in history and contemporary society which Roy States collected from his teenage years to the end of his life. The materials are primarily English-language works produced during his lifetime, and the majority of them are from Canada or the United States. The physically largest series within the collection (Series B, Monographs) consists of 679 published volumes, most of them books and a smaller number of them booklets. These volumes are all catalogued individually, with a common sublocation of "Roy States Collection" within Rare Books and Special Collections. The remaining series contain a diversity of published, ephemeral, and unpublished materials, including various items by or about Roy States himself. Series A is a group of biographical materials and other items which relate directly to States. Series C consists of booklets and brochures. Series D consists of complete issues of newspapers, and Series E consists of complete issues of serials other than newspapers. Series F contains an assortment of newspaper and magazine clippings, as well as reprinted or photocopied extracts from books, journals and other works. Series G contains materials relating to conferences and meetings, chiefly involving groups and organizations advocating for civil rights; the materials include programs, agendas, minutes and reports, as well as the text of various speeches presented at these events. Series H consists primarily of graphic materials which have been mounted in cardboard-and-plastic display sleeves or in glass-fronted wooden frames. Series I is a group of miscellaneous materials such as studies, reports, typescripts, bibliographies and leaflets.
The collection was formed by the Canadian puppeteer Rosalynde Osborne Stearn as a comprehensive library on the puppet theatre with representative examples of puppets characteristic of different periods and countries. It includes some 2714 books and periodicals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the puppet theatre in various European languages as well as scripts for puppet plays. The collection contains 171 puppets from Europe, Asia (including shadow puppets), and the Americas, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Also included are toy theatres, theatrical portraits, paintings, prints and posters.
The Roger Doucet Collection consists of over 1000 pieces of sheet music (including scores), 45 manuscripts, and one scrapbook containing photographs and newspaper clippings related to his career as the singer of “O Canada” during professional sports games.
The collection contains an account written by a Major Gilbert of the 1757 Rochefort expedition during the Seven Years' War. During this conflict, known as the Raid of Rochefort, British amphibious troops attempted unsuccessfully to capture the French port of Rochefort on the Atlantic coast.
Collection contains memorabilia relating to Dr. Robert Howard's student life at McGill University and of his career, from 1871 to 1888. Among the items are diplomas, photographs, newspaper clippings, a booklet from McGill University, a frame and a programme.
The collection contains a notebook, a scrapbook and some correspondence of Richard Robert Madden. The notebook includes drafts of his poems in his writing, ca 1830; notes by T.M. Madden pertaining to his tutors and schoolfellows at Radcliffe, 1854; and medical lectures at Trinity College, Dublin, 1855. The scrapbook includes clippings of controversies, enquiries and letters relating to slave trade, ca 1840.
The collection consists of 3 scrapbooks assembled by Richard L. MacDonnell, and 1 McGill Dissection Room Record Book created and kept by MacDonnell from April 1883-1891. The scrapbooks contain notes, patient prescription information, reprints of various publications by MacDonnell, and lots of news clippings concerning various topics such as the history of Montreal, McGill University, the McGill faculty, Montreal General Hospital, and obituary notices. A second volume of dissection records (1896-1908) was compiled after MacDonnell's death, and can be found in the library catalogue.
