The Sentimental Valentines sub-subseries consists of cards, handmade or manufactured, in which a long, sentimental poem is the main feature. The cards range in terms of format and style. They may be elaborately decorated by hand with several materials, or simple printed on cardstock. They are usually illustrated with allegorical images or stock illustrations of couples, mythology or landscapes. Some of the cards have handwritten messages professing one’s love for the recipient. They are excellent examples of Victorian sentimentality and 19th century poetic verse.

The Stationer's Scraps sub-subseries is comprised of 15 scraps of card. These consist of individual pieces of cutout card that have either fallen off existing cards, or which were meant to be used by a cardmaker in the fabrication of greeting cards. They are excellent examples of the small details that were included in the decoration of cards during manufacturing.

The Fold-out Valentines sub-subseries consists of 33 cards that feature some sort of interactive component. This may include flaps that open to reveal hidden messages, or pop-up cards that can be folded out to make a free-standing three-dimensional image.

Sub-subseries consists of approximately ten of Dawson's scientific notebooks (box 29). Most are pocket memoranda, but some are more discursive, such as a notebook on Nova Scotia geology and one of geological notes from the 1860s and 1870s. Three scrapbooks bear directly on science: "Scientific Scraps" is largely pictorial material; "Scraps relating to science and religion", despite its title, is mostly Dawson's published articles on geology, education, and travel (boxes 39-40); finally, a scrapbook of clippings programmes and photographs serves as a souvenir of Dawson's presidential meeting of the BAAS in Birmingham, 1886 (box 77).

Sub-subseries consists of manuscript essays and addresses on scientific subjects falling into four categories: (1) popular lectures, not only on geology, but also on biology, entomology, physics, archaeology and even linguistics; (2) mining, particularly of Nova Scotia coal, with some reports and maps; (3) geology, largely of Nova Scotia, and (4) palaeontology (approximately 72 cm). Some of the materials in sub-subseries are drafts of works later published, and these papers also contain 80 cm of Dawson's printed books and articles.

The sub-subseries consists of twenty miscellaneous geological maps, charts, and plans of Egypt, Sinai Peninsula, Rome, Manitoba, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, the eastern part of British North America, Snake River, Montana, Wyoming, Wisconsin, St. Lawrence River, Cumberland Coal Field, North Pole, and Pictou Harbour. Maps are both printed and hand-drawn.