McGill's papers are of both a personal and a business nature. Personal materials consist of almanacs, 1801, 1802, 1812, containing short, dry diary notes; a power of attorney from McGill to Duncan Cameron, 1809; photocopies of two letters to his business associates John Askin and Isaac Todd, 1812; and copies of his will, 1813. His business interests are represented by the journal of the firm of James and Andrew McGill, 1797-1814. Four documents concerning McGill's property and its boundaries, 1798, 1803 are contained in McGill University Administrative Records, Record Group 4, c.437-c.438.

The collection consists of a selection of records reflecting Sir Arthur Currie's tenure as Principal of McGill University from 1920 to 1933. His administration was marked by the establishment of the Faculty of Music, the School for Graduate Nurses, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. Constructed during this period were Moyse Hall, the Roddick Gates, a Biology Building (now the F. Cyril James Administration Building), and additions to Royal Victoria College and Redpath Library. Currie died in office on 30 November 1933. His records form a part of the McGill University's executive and administrative records, RG2: Office of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor. The Principal is the academic head and chief administrative officer of the University. Under the original Charter of 1821, the Principal constituted with the Board of Governors and the Fellows (now the Senate) a body politic and corporate. Later amendments to the Charter and changes in the University statutes have not significantly altered the position of Principal. Ex officio, by virtue of his office, the Principal is also Vice-Chancellor of the University, a member of the Board of Governors and Chairman of the Senate. Frequently, it has been the Principal's vision and personality which have determined the course of McGill's development; therefore, the records not only document the administrative activities of the office, but also often reflect the character of the whole institution. Currie's records fall more or less into the three general series: external correspondence, internal administration and academic matters.

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.

The fonds consists of a scrapbook containing photos, ephemera, and clippings related to the McGill graduates athletic club, Winter Carnival, and copies of the McGill News, approximately 1947. In addition, there is a photograph of Convocation (May 22, 1946), a cardigan sweater and a MOC patch.

Half of these records consist of printed annual announcements (including Canadian Medical Register) from 1914 to 1961. The remainder consists of a number of files on "old controversies" stripped from the MCC files in 1955 and sent to Dr. D. Sclater Lewis. Some of the controversies concerned a move to amalgamate MCC examinations with final-year university medical examinations, 1941; the status of homeopathic practitioners, 1923-1940; registration in the U.K., 1914-1925; the petition of returning military medical officers to take the MCC licence without examination, 1919; and control of specialists by the MCC, 1934-1935.

The collection consists of informational files on Juda Hirsch Quastel, collected by T. L. Sourkes and F. C. MacIntosh for a biography of J. H. Quastel for "Memoirs of the Royal Society of London", vol. 36, 1990. The files include material from the Royal Society itself, letters from many people about Quastel, laudatory articles about him along with obituaries about his death, some notes by Hank in his handwriting, and other items.

The fonds consists of a typed manuscript and a xerox sheet containing information collected by R.C. Amaron about Edwin Hatch, prepared for Dr. R. Williamson of England.

This collection is composed of McGill memorabilia collected by Ian C. Pilarczyk between 2000 and 2018, and includes articles, news clippings, programs (mostly football), pamphlets, photographs, objects (such as pins, buttons, medals, ribbons, humidors, spoons), addresses, medical notebooks, LPs and prints.

This collection, assembled by the Faculty of Dentistry, consists of curricula vitae, photocopied notices of papers Francis presented at conferences, and photocopies of his thesis and some of his published articles.

The Grierson Collection was assembled by the Communications Department, McGill University, by soliciting, from a variety of sources, documentation on Grierson himself, on the institutions for which he worked (particularly the National Film Board of Canada), and on the history of documentary film. The core of the collection is from the Film Board, and consists of audio-visual production materials for films on Grierson and related topics; supplementing this are collections of documentation, and some personal papers (correspondence, notebooks, speeches), mostly obtained from associates of Grierson.