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.

Fonds consists primarily of records related to the administration of the Scottish Centre of Montreal, including management of its building and finances. Other administrative documents include directories and guests. Fonds also includes meeting minutes and artifacts related to the centre's administration and social activities.

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 one bound manuscript notebook softbound in a piece of brown leather. The notebook dates chiefly from 1841 and was produced in St. Armand by Philip Luke. The notebook contains a title page that has been lettered, illustrated, and coloured by hand: A Latin Translation / by Philip Luke. St. Armand. 1841. Commenced April 4th. The text within this first portion of the notebook is Aesop's Fables in English and Latin on facing pages. The first part of the manuscript ends with "13. Horse and Ass" (Latin is incomplete) and "32. Widow and Servants" (Latin text missing). The following leaf contains two medical recipes: "A cure for a felon or whitlow," refering to an abscess or infection of the fingertip and consisting of a paste made from egg yolk, honey, turpentine spirits, camphor, and flour, and "A reciet for the inflammatory rheumatism," involving a wine-based tonic containing three types of bark, horseradish, brandy, and tar water. Following another blank leaf, a partial letter is found dated 1839. Philip Luke's text begins again in the latter part of the manuscript with a second coloured title page: "Dialogues and Declamations." There is also one loose note laid in dated 1809, a receipt for 100$.

Fonds contains Whitwell's notebooks at McGill on lectures in Physiology, Pathology, Materia Medica, Practice of Medicine and Surgery. The lecturers include Drs. W. Fraser, W. Wright, A.F. Holmes and G.W. Campbell. The fonds includes six notebooks.

Fonds reflects Jones’ work as a scientist, but not her activities as a poet. Over two-thirds of the materials are student notes coupled with quizzes, laboratories and reports. These largely stem from her Cornell period, and cover graduate seminars in population genetics and biochemistry as well as her doctoral research in plant breeding and plant physiology. There are also notes for courses on statistics, genetics, agriculture and animal physiology from the University of the West Indies.

Materials related to Jones' research comprise laboratory notes and graphs, drafts of papers and correspondence with publishers, scientific supply companies, and other scientists in her field. Administrative papers related to research include applications to the National Research Council, budget statements, requisitions and invoices for equipment, records of laboratory assistants and summer students, and correspondence on travel arrangements.

Her teaching of genetics and zoology is illustrated by her class and seminar notes, laboratory outlines, reading lists, and examinations. The administrative side is represented by memoranda on course changes and course evaluations, correspondence on the rental of films and the purchase of equipment, files on freshman counseling and the supervision of graduate students and letters of recommendation for students. Supplementing this are minutes of faculty meetings and materials relating to the McGill Association of University Teachers.

Biographical material on Jones may be found in a file containing curricula vitae, obituaries, and correspondence concerning the Barbara Jones Fund.

Fonds consists of original files and printed materials falling into two themes. The larger of the two concerns Pavlasek’s work on the Superior Council of Education (1967-1972). Correspondence, notes and minutes deal with the establishment of the Université du Québec, the organization of a Council of universities, and legislation regarding capital funding of universities. The McGill Senate is the subject of the second group, comprising correspondence, minutes, reports and submissions from 1963 to 1971.

Fonds contains correspondence and manuscripts. The correspondence is largely devoted to the Tait family’s property in Nova Scotia and other domestic matters, but there are also files regarding Tait’s work at McGill (1928-1942) and at the Nova Scotia Summer School in Education (1927-1941). The fonds also contains a few letters to and from Vincent Massey (1926-1940). Approximately a third of Tait’s papers are drafts of publications on practical psychology, behaviour and behaviourism, educational psychology, psychopathology and social applications of psychology. (ca 1920-1930).

Most of this archive documents the High School for Girls. The administrative records comprise prospecti for both High Schools, registers of attendance, 1875-1896, examinations, 1855-1858, 1884-1888, fees, 1863-1869, and corporal punishment, 1892-1896, 1949-1960, and memoranda from the Rector applying to either the boys' division or to both High Schools, 1897-1904. There are also working notes for teachers, 1902-1903, 1921-1931, and scrapbooks of programmes, clippings and notes concerning activities in both schools, covering the years 1913 to 1960. Examination papers, 1872-1882, a guest book, 1919-1943, an annotated address book of High School for Girls staff prepared by Principal L.M. Hendrie, 1911-1945, and photographic portraits of the Principals of the High School for Girls round out this series. Student activities are reflected not only in the official scrapbooks, but also in minute books, photograph albums and scrapbooks of the High School for Girls' Athletic Association, 1912-1913, Literary and Debating Society, 1906-1908, and English Club, 1935-1940. There are a large number of photographs of girls' sports teams, 1915-1941, as well as a scrapbook of clippings on the activity of High School for Girls Alumnae, 1953-1956.

The collection documents the involvement of McGill faculty, students, alumni, and staff during the Second World War. It contains information on 5568 men and women on active service, including 295 women. It also provides information on the 298 dead, 52 prisoners of war, and 629 recipients of medals.

The greater portion consists of folders, index cards, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and photographs of individual soldiers and civilians. Index cards, documents and photographs were created and accumulated by Fetherstonhaugh and placed in alphabetical order within specific categories. The collection contains four distinct series: index cards; textual documents, including newspaper clippings; correspondence and articles arranged by subject; and photographs. The first series contains subseries reflecting Fetherstonhaugh’s original subdivision categories.

The index cards are arranged in the following groupings:

-Subversive activities
-Killed
-Prisoners of war
-University staff
-Macdonald College
-Army course
-COTC
-US
-General list A-H
-General list I-Mc
-General list M-Z
-Returned from active service
-Photos in extension file
-Photos on loan
-Women
-Civil

Other files in the collection include correspondence and newspaper clippings arranged by particular subjects; correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning the McGill War Memorial Campaign, 1947-1949; Fetherstonhaugh's account book of income and expenditures, and some vouchers, 1942-1946; McGill News articles, 1942-1946; correspondence, memoranda, invoices, reviews, and newspaper clippings, 1947-1948, concerning the book McGill University at War, 1914-1918; 1939-1945.