The fonds contains Norman Bethune's letter correspondences, including numerous letters between him and his former wife Frances Penney. The majority of the fonds consists of material about Bethune: newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, slides and negatives, an original play about his life, a documentary script, various memorabilia (e.g. commemorative stamps, brochures, pamphlets, buttons and pins, posters, fliers), and writings about Bethune's work in Canada, Spain, and China.
The fonds contains fourteen notebooks kept by the Poisson family during their studies in medicine. The notebooks contain lecture notes and class notes on various topics in medicine taught by prominent professors such as, Jean Étienne and L. Landry, L. Simard, F.A.H. Larue, and J. Sewell.
The fonds contains four original manuscript diaries (1 per calendar year), from 1889 to 1991 (transatlantic) with original watercolor drawings by John Henry Wye, Allan Line ship’s surgeon.
The fonds contains one prescription book of Dr. Robert Todd Reynolds, with some clippings of medical drawings in the back; 3 pages of the Reynolds' family genealogy record and one page of an article "The Ancestral Roof: Domestic Architecture in Upper Canada" and a photo of the house, indicating the relationship between James McGill des Rivières and the Reynolds family; 4 of R. T. Reynolds' Diplomas, one from McGill.
The fonds contains letters, 1948-1958, to and from Dr. W.W. Francis. It also includes two poems by Francis, and a letter from the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine regarding death of Francis in 1959.
A partial inventory of this collection reveals that it is largely composed of the scattered personal papers of the members of the Worthington Family, ca. 1833-1944, especially those of Edward Dagge Worthington and Arthur Norreys Worthington. The fonds also includes a few items pertaining to Edward Bruen Worthington and Asheton N. Worthington. It includes personal, business and professional correspondence; certificates, diplomas, tests, maps, sketchbooks, loose ledger sheets, testimonials, photographs and newspaper clippings. The greater part of the collection consists of the papers of Edward Dagge Worthington including correspondence related to his business affairs, medical career and family matters (1840-1883); medical certificates and diplomas, (1840-1847); two sketchbooks, (1840?); with caricatures of John Goodsir, Alexander Munro, Robert Knox and William Robertson; testimonials (1865, 1867); a resume of his education covering 1833-1843; newspaper clippings and photographs. The papers of Arthur Norreys Worthington are primarily correspondence describing his military activities in South Africa, 1900.