The collection consists of books, periodicals, and published ephemera related to alternative media between roughly the 1960s and 1998. The collections has a special focus on Quebec alternative, grassroots, and political publications as well as journalism trade publications and ephemera, and union and labour movement publications. Some publications are from Cuba and China, including Cuban calendars and some documents, books, and newspapers on China.
The fonds consists of records documenting William P. Wolfe's business activity as an antiquarian bookseller in Montreal with a focus on Canadiana, from primarily 1952 to 1985. There are also some scattered earlier materials. The fonds contains chiefly textual records, with one microfiche, one artifact, and a small amount of graphic materials, as well as printed matter. The records are mainly correspondence (letters received as well as copies of letters sent to contacts across Canada, the United States and Europe); there are also accompanying catalogues, auction records, receipts, inventory lists and newspaper clippings. Files are arranged alphabetically in two blocks: A-N and A-Z. Other records document the administration of Wolfe's company, including tax forms, bills, auction house receipts, auction house catalogues, receipts for office equipment, promotional materials from other businesses, newsletters and newspaper clippings. The fonds consists of the following series: Business Correspondence (1958-1984) and Financial Administration (1958-1985).
Fonds documents Michel Brisebois's work as a rare books curator and librarian, and antiquarian bookseller. The records include extensive correspondence from approximately 1966 to 1994 (textual and on diskette), as well as evaluations of libraries and archives including the Archives nationales du Québec, the McCord Musum, the McGill University Libraries, the Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, and others. The fonds also contains Brisebois's agenda books, catalogues, and financial records, as well as documents relating to the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of Canada.
Fonds documents Grant Woolmer's career as an antiquarian book dealer. The records include:
Card File. 1954 – 1998, 628.5 cm of 3" x 5" (7.5 cm x 12.5 cm) index cards describing every book owned and sold by Grant Woolmer giving description and price. Over 30,000 cards.
Catalogues. 1954 – 1998, 180 cm. Complete run of catalogues of Antique Book Shop, later Grant Woolmer Books. Over 400 different catalogues.
Financial Records. 1954 – 1998, 250 cm. 6 ledgers giving daily income and disbursements; invoices, etc.
Mailing list, undated, 5 cm. Some 200 names of institutions, dealers and private collectors mimeographed on 7 sheets.
Newspaper clippings and ephemera. 1980 –1998, 5 cm. File consisting of clippings and articles relating to the antiquarian book trade, as well obituaries of antiquarian book dealers and collectors. About 200 items.
Bates List Finder. 1980s – 1990s, 3 cm. Alphabetical telephone directory and addresses for frequently called numbers.
This collection consists of contemporary copies of letters written by T. Blackwood from Michilimackinac to James and Andrew McGill & Co., to Ch. Chaboillez, and to T. and J. McGregor.
The collection consists of documents amassed by Roderick Mackenzie. Among the Masson manuscripts there are other series of letters; as well as journals kept by North-Westers and various business documents. Some of this material exists as originals; others are contemporary copies - the George Keith letters for example are contemporary copies on paper watermarked 1827. The collection also includes some duplicate texts - contemporary copies or later nineteenth-century copies that in some cases represent edited versions of the texts. Samuel Wilcocke's account of the death of Benjamin Frobisher exists in a draft original (or contemporary copy) and in a late nineteenth-century clean copy. Of course Benjamin Frobisher did not die in the dramatic circumstances as recorded by Wilcocke, but peacefully in Quebec City in 1821.
The Coppenrath Collection of Voyageurs Contracts for the North West Company partners contains 52 contracts for the period from approximately 1800 to 1821. These document the terms of engagement for men going into the North West . Voyageur contracts are of particular interest for study of the fur trade, Canada's first major industry, because they document the conditions of employment for many of the journeymen ("engagés") involved in the trade, both those who worked on the Ottawa River and those who "wintered" in the North West. The contracts are dated from 1800 to 1821 with printed forms from before 1800 being used in some cases. A significant number of outfitters are included namely the firm of McTavish, McGillivrays & Co. with various partners including John Ogilvy and Thomas Thain, Pierre de Rocheblave and earlier partnership – McTavish, Frobisher & Co. As well, there are contracts with lesser known outfitters. These contracts provide not only the names of the "engagés" but usually their place of residence and the conditions and terms of their employment.
Collection consists of six account books dating from the 1830s to the 1860s, including ledgers and daybooks, used and kept primarily by Enoch Curtis for his leather tanning business. There are also some loose accounts and notes on small sheets of paper. The ledgers use a single-entry bookkeeping method in £sd. They are organized by individual merchant account, with records of debits (purchases or expenditures made) and credits (payments or goods received). Parallel underlining and Xs indicate when an account has balanced. The collection also includes some records related to Stella Curtis from the 1890s, including one letter and two sheets of math problems marked Clarenceville Model School.
Fonds consists primarily of correspondence between Hertel de Rouville and members of the Canadian government, including Chief Secretary of Lower Canada Sir Thomas William Clinton Murdoch (1809-1891) and Governors General Lord Gosford and Charles Bagot, regarding financial losses he incurred during the rebellions of 1837, 1838, and 1839, and half-pay claims dating from his time as captain of the Canadian Voltigeurs during the War of 1812. Also included are five envelopes with wax seals intact.
Fonds consists of a one document, a manuscript of reminiscences of Charles James, born in Montreal in 1835. The document is internally dated in April 1915. James describes his childhood as the son of a carriage and sleigh builder born in England who conducted much business for the British military stationed in Montreal. The family resided on Craig Street. Reminiscences include descriptions of Montreal, the building of the locks on the Lachine canal, a trip up the Ottawa River to Bytown (Ottawa) and then to Kingston, where the family resided for a time. James joined his father in the trade of carriage trimming as a young man before becoming a Baptist minister in Stratford, Canada, and later Wellesley.
