The fonds consists of documents relating to Macdonald’s publications and professional activities outside the classroom both prior to and during his tenure at McGill and for various professional associations. The scope covers the period of 1976 to 2012 and includes: articles, essays, and speeches (both draft, final and off-print) and their assorted documentation (travel itinerary, correspondence, conference notes, and research).
The fonds is divided into four series which were imposed by the archivist. The first is Publications which relates to any of Macdonald’s published material. The second is Professional Activities which is composed mainly of speeches and conference notes and materials. The third is Publications and Professional Activities which encompasses any professional activity which was subsequently published or vice versa. The last is Course Materials.
Approximately half this material consists of letters, covering the years 1823-1837, from Andrew William Cochran, 1792-1849, civil secretary to the governors of Lower Canada from 1812 onwards, and a member of the Executive Council from 1827 to 1841. The remainder comprises a number of accounts of travels and exploration by North West Company employees, probably collected by McKenzie for his history. Included are Charles McKenzie's expeditions amongst the Otoe Missouria Tribe.; Edward Umfreville's journal of a canoe trip from Lake Superior to Portage de l'Isle 1784; accounts of the Alaskan Athabaskans, 1795 and 1805, George Keith's memoirs of the McKenzie River Department, 1807-1817; and George Henry Monk's of the Department of Fond du Lac or Mississippi, 1807; John McDonnell's account of the Red River, ca 1787; and John Johnston's of Lake Superior and a letter on the Indigenous communities of the northwest from Eneas McDonnell. Also included are letters written to McKenzie from Forks on the Mackenzie River by William Ferdinand Wentzel, 1807-1824.
The fonds contains Roderick Stewart's research work and writing for his biography of Dr. Norman Bethune published as Bethune (1973) and The Mind of Norman Bethune (1977).
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 Ronald Melzack fonds contains 6 videotapes, 1 Radio-Quebec program "Les Prix du Quebec, 1994" and 5 taped lectures in the "University of the air" series, 1978.
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.
"Architectural drawings, 1931, 11 drawings." Copies of plans and sections of the design for Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto are found in the archive. This sports arena was designed in association with John Ryrie and MacKenzie Waters. " Architectural drawings, Ravenscrag Development, Montreal, Quebec 1936." 4 pencil on trace: plot plan, first floor, second floor, and third floor plans.
"Dessins architecturaux, 1931, Il dessins." Le fonds comprend des dessins de plans et de coupes du projet du Maple Leaf Gardens de Toronto. Cet aréna a été dessiné en association avec John Ryrie et MacKenzie Waters.
"Architectural Drawings, 1910, 17 drawings." The design for a branch of the Bank of Toronto located at the corner of Guy and St. Catherine Streets in Montreal and for a house in Westmount for Charles A. Smart are documented in the archive.
"Dessins architecturaux, 1910, 17 dessins." Notamment le dessin d'une succursale de la Banque de Toronto située à l'angle des rues Guy et Sainte-Catherine à Montréal ainsi que d'une maison de Westmount construite pour le compte de Charles A. Smart.
The Ross family fonds consists primarily of records related to the student achievements of the Ross children and includes student notebooks, news clippings, convocation programmes, certificates, and memorabilia of the Red and White Revue such as songs, photographs and original songs. Edward Russell Paterson’s student notebooks in geology, petrography and English literature are included.
In addition, there are two diaries of William Stieven Paterson’s from his travels through Civil War battlefields in the southern USA and a trip to Cuba; 8 photograph albums depicting the Paterson side of the family; 3 scrapbooks of magazine stories for children, poems and household hints; and correspondence between Dorothy Jean Ross and the McGill University Archives.
