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.

Consists of notes on the Rideau Canal's traffic.

The collection was assembled by the Rare Book Department at McGill to group a number of anonymous poetry collections and verse miscellanies dating from roughly the long eighteenth century. These include: a volume written around 1700 containing Milton's Comus and other poems, largely elegiac; a group of 38 original poems from 1774; satires of Cambridge personalities by an undergraduate (1795-1800); a volume of poems bound in vellum written in various hands by George Colin Campbell, Miss Flaxman, Mrs. A. M. Keith, Bernard Bolton, George Tucker and others, with sketches (1817); and Lady Murray's poetry commonplace-book (approximately 1820) containing poems by celebrated authors and some original pieces.

2 albums of photographs by Notman, of the house, grounds, and stables at Ravenscrag.

This collection of original documents concerning Protestant education in Quebec was assembled by E.I. Rexford for his history of the High School of Montreal. The bulk of this material dates from the 1830s and 1840s, and includes a 300 page report on the Jesuit Estates, 1839, a summary of educational legislation, 1838, grammar school returns from Canada West, 1842, and a number of surveys and accounts.

This collection consists of translations from Terence, begun in 1778, and correspondence on military, political and private matters, 1787-1821, mostly addressed to Thomas Coutts, banker.

The collection contains 164 botanical and zoological paintings created chiefly by Elizabeth Gwillim as well as possibly by her sister Mary Symonds while living in Chennai, India (then Madras). The collection includes 121 watercolours of birds with inscriptions, 31 watercolours of fish, and twelve of flowers, drawn from life rather than specimens. The paintings reflect the sisters' time in Madras during which, as artists and letter writers, they created a substantial visual record of the landscape and inhabitants of Madras and environs. The paintings also reflect Gwillim's scientific pursuits, including her study of botany.

This collection reflects Henry S. Chapman's relationships with a number of important figures in Montreal's political and business history, between roughly 1833 and 1853, the period following Chapman's return to London. A significant amount of the material in this collection is related to the 1837-1838 Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions (especially in Montreal), as well as events occurring immediately after the uprisings.

Consists of copies of original material, chiefly correspondence, arranged roughly by date. The contents of letters (1835-1853) include business partnerships, political reform, and personal news. Significant correspondents include Louis-Joseph Papineau, Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Jacob Dewitt, François-Antoine Larocque (of Laroque and Bernard), Joseph Perreault, and Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan. There is also a partial manuscript on Canadian history and pages from a scrapbook, both dating from the 1830s.

Collection consists of a manuscript petition in French written on behalf of Jean Baptiste Lepine for a ferry from Rivière des Prairies to the river end of Île Jésus, dated 12 April 1809. The petition is signed with his mark. The petition also includes the signatures or marks of a number of other signatories, including Jacob Oldham, Roderick Mackenzie, and Simon Fraser. On verso is a docket title and information in English about reciept of the petition and a note that the request was granted.

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).