Collection shows Dr. J.C. Simpson's interest in Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882). His collection of Darwiniana contains newspaper clippings, dinner programs and menus, programs of commemoration of the Darwin Centenary in England, correspondence and photographs.

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."

This collection consists of twelve documents concerning the settlement of the Algonquin and Nipissing First Nations at Oka, Quebec, some in Anishinaabemowin, 1831-1853. There are also letters and documents mostly addressed to N. O. Greene, a solicitor and activist, concerning the Indigenous communities of Oka, 1878-1880.