The fonds primarily reflects Pappius’s activities as a researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (MNI/H): both her experimental research as such and various support activities, including academic publication, coordination of research projects with colleagues, and acquiring funding. It also contains much information about her leadership of the Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory. The fonds contains smaller amounts of documentation regarding her activities as a professor at McGill University, her administrative roles at the MNI/H, and her participation in professional organizations, which reflects the smaller place that those roles occupied in her professional life.

The period of time best documented in the fonds spans the early 1980s to Pappius’s retirement in 1995. Correspondence with colleagues, mostly though not exclusively work-related, contains relatively more material from Pappius’s early career; although, here too, most of the material dates from the 1980s and after.

The main document types in the fonds related to Pappius’s research activities are experiment worksheets and printed tabular research data. Many of the research-related files contain negatives of autoradiographies, with a smaller number of photographic prints. Correspondence can be found in many series besides series F (Correspondence), as much of Pappius’s work was collaborative in nature.

The fonds is divided into eight series: (A) Research, (B) Academic events, (C) Teaching, (D) Administrative activities, (E) Professional organizations, (F) Correspondence, (G) Personal collections, and (H) Visual documents.

Fonds consists of personal letters between Howard family members and close relations (C. P. Howard, William Osler, Grace Osler, the Wright family etc.). Subjects range from wedding engagement congratulations for C. P. Howard and Otillie Wright, personal introductions from Grace Osler, to professional appointment letters. There are original photographs (as well as a few copies) of candid Osler family moments, formal family portraits, hospital photos of Osler at work, as well as several professional portraits of William Osler by prominent Montreal photographers. The fonds also includes miscellaneous reprints, booklets, and various other publication materials such as R. P. Howard's valedictory addresses to several graduating classes, personal copies of medical case studies, Olser's handwritten medical notes from 1875-1878, as well as original caricature sketches by Edward Revere Osler. In addition, there is a small photo album (in its own presentation box) with John Hopkins Hospital staff portraits (names included) from 1902-1903. The photo album is stamped "C.P.H." on the front cover.\nIncluded in the fonds are the following books: The Holy Bible (Oxford, 1912), The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (Diamond Edition, New York, 1881), and Robert Bridges The Spirit of Man (Longmans Green and Co., London, 1916).

Fonds consists of photographs and other items that document the early career of Isadore Hirshberg while studying medicine at McGill University from 1909-1914, including 60 album-sized photographs, a framed group photograph of Hirshberg and Montreal General Hospital residents, Hirshberg's framed provincial medical certificate, and two certificates of residency. Subjects include Hirshberg and classmates; campus and student life; photographs of staff, doctors, and nurses in hospital settings, including two photographs of John McCrae at the Alexandra Hospital; and various views of McGill medical buildings and hospitals, including the new medical building at the time of construction in 1910, the Royal Victoria Hospital around 1910, and the Western Hospital in 1913. Two photographs features the medical school janitor James "King" Cook, a fixture of the school and a favorite with the students from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. His wife was Frank Buller's housekeeper during Osler's time. Fonds also includes a large framed group photograph, Resident Medical Staff/Montreal General Hospital/1914-1915 by Wm. Notman & Son and Hirshberg's Quebec medical license issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec and dated July 1914. Descriptions of the photographs where present are in Hirshberg's hand except in cases in which there were additional descriptions in the album. These were copied in pencil on the verso of the related photograph.

Fond contains solely glass slide negatives. Many slides depict the McGill campus between the years 1918-1921, including the Strathcona Medical Building, as well as the Royal Victoria Hospital. Other subjects include street scenes taken in Montreal after the end of the First World War and the Lockharts' family life during the early 1920s.

The fonds illustrates Dr. Cone's work as a neurosurgeon and consists of correspondence, letters, articles, newspaper clippings, obituaries, photographs, slides, research material and notes, course material, annual reports, manuscripts, typescripts, annotations, published and unpublished manuscripts written by Dr. Cone, printed copies of articles, and patient files.

Fonds documents Dr. H.E. MacDermot's medical-historical activities. The fonds contains newspaper clippings, manuscript notes, photographs, lectures notes, and a draft of The MGH, the Years of Change.

Fonds documents Dr. Antonio Cantero's professional activities, especially his cancer research. The fonds contains correspondence, notes, reports, printed matter, slides, photographs and films.

The fonds documents Dorothy Duncan’s personal and professional activities as an American-born Canadian writer and painter, primarily between 1930 and her death in 1957. Duncan’s career as a writer is represented by scrapbooks, clippings, and photographs related to her published works, two unpublished manuscripts, and contracts and correspondence with publishers and her literary agent in New York. Her activities as a painter are documented in clippings, lists of paintings, and contracts with art galleries. The fonds also contains personal correspondence, including letters from friends, family, fans, and a significant number of letters from her husband, Hugh MacLennan. Duncan’s notebooks and diaries also attest to her personal and professional activities. They document her early adulthood in Illinois and her later life in Montreal, and include notes, agendas, and a ledger. The fonds also contains two albums of personal photographs.

The fonds consists of the records of the Zoological Society of Montreal for the entirety of its existence, from 1964-2016. These records were generated in the pursuit of the Zoological Society’s goal to enhance public awareness of wildlife conservation issues through speakers, film screenings, field trips, special events, and large projects. The records also reflect the Society's charity to zoological, ecological and conservation causes. The administration of the Society, its interactions with its members, and its projects and events are documented through minutes, correspondence, communications, published articles, financial documents, reports, and proposals. The Society’s interests and activities are also reflected through books, objects from their offices, audio and video materials, and 5243 photographs, most of which are stored in photo albums. The fonds also contains the records of the Zoological Society of Canada, which were created to administer the Canadian Society similarly to the Montreal Society, with the goal of expanding the organization’s reach nationally.

The fonds is comprised of the following series: 1) Activities (1965-2013); 2) Administration (1964-2016); 3) Artifacts (1980-2004); 4) Books (1967-1991); and 5) Newsletters (1967-2016).

The William Feindel fonds documents the research, writing, teaching, and various professional activities of William Feindel. Materials related to Feindel’s research make up the bulk of the fonds and cover his many research interests in the field of neurology as well as his interest in the history of medicine and the legacies of Wilder Penfield, William Osler, and 17th-century physician and neuroanatomist Thomas Willis. An entire series is dedicated to records related to Feindel’s role as the curator for the Wilder Penfield archives. The William Feindel fonds also documents his work for the Montreal Neurological Institute, his role as Acadia University’s Chancellor, and several professional appointments. A series of notebooks consists of Feindel’s notes on various research topics but also contains notes regarding personal matters. Along with the notebooks, a series that documents Feindel’s personal life includes materials related to his family, his years as a student, and a variety of souvenirs and books that he kept as part of his personal library.