The collection was assembled by the Rare Book Department at McGill to group a number of anonymous poetry collections and verse miscellanies dating from roughly the long eighteenth century. These include: a volume written around 1700 containing Milton's Comus and other poems, largely elegiac; a group of 38 original poems from 1774; satires of Cambridge personalities by an undergraduate (1795-1800); a volume of poems bound in vellum written in various hands by George Colin Campbell, Miss Flaxman, Mrs. A. M. Keith, Bernard Bolton, George Tucker and others, with sketches (1817); and Lady Murray's poetry commonplace-book (approximately 1820) containing poems by celebrated authors and some original pieces.

Collection consists of menus acquired individually by the library. Menus date back to 1877, but most of the menus are twentieth century. The bulk of menus are from Montreal-area restaurants and hotels, representing French, Quebecois, and other styles of cuisine such as Indian. Some menus are from specific dinners given at hotels, special events, or in honour of dignitaries, such as a dinner for Edward, Prince of Wales, 1919. A subset of menus relate specifically to travel and include train dining car menus and steamship menus.

Contains manuscript compilation relating to French Huguenots: "Recueil des actes de tous les Sinodes Nationnaux... au Royaume de France, 1559-1660." Includes an additional leaf dated 1711 at the end signed Etienne Merichaux.

This collection contains a deed of assignment prepared for the firm Patterson and Co., created on 17 April 1811, with several renewals and additions, the last of which was on 22 June 1814. The deed of assignment includes many merchants and firms as attorneys or signatories, many of whom were involved in the fur trade and the North West Company.

The David Hume Collection contains letters and other ephemera brought together from multiple acquisitions. The principal manuscripts are found in is the bound volume containing letters from David Hume to the Comtesse de Boufflers. There are also letters from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others for a total of 59 letters. This collection of letters was the basis for the anonymously edited Private Correspondence of David Hume with Several Distinguished Persons, Between the Years 1761 and 1776. Now First Published From the Originals. (London: Printed for Henry Colburn and Co., 1820.) One of the McGill copies of this book belonged to the Montreal lawyer and book collector Frederick Griffin (1798-1877). In addition to this volume there are eight other Hume letters. Some of these have been published by Professor Klibansky and Ernest C. Mosser in New Letters of David Hume. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954). Finally, there are photographic copies of Hume manuscripts held by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and typed copies of official letters on Canada from the manuscripts of Sir Mark Dalrymple.

Collection contains letters, memorial, other documents dealing with the cultivation of hemp in Lower Canada, including those of Jesse J. P. Pennoyer.

These are letters from Selkirk to Miles MacDonnell, 1811-1813 and instructions concerning wages and contracts. Thirteen documents concern Lord Selkirk's conflict with the North West Company at the Red River Colony and Fort William.There is also a letter to Colonel Benjamin Walker, 1816.

2 albums of photographs by Notman, of the house, grounds, and stables at Ravenscrag.

Collection consists of Canadiana assembled by Charles Kadwell: Canadiana: or, A medley of sundry matters in print and manuscript, relating principally to the Canadas; (during the period of the rebel-lions;) the other British North American colonies; and the neighbouring United States; with views, maps, plans, portraits, &c. and private journals. 2 vol. Folio. Vol 1 includes "Remarks during a voyage from London to Montreal in the year 1832"; "Notes during a trip from Montreal to Upper Canada... 3rd-18th August 1838"; "Calendar of remarkable events relating to British North America and the United States". Mostly cuttings from newspapers. A pedigree of the Kadwell family has been inserted by L.G. Macdonald, Q.C., and annotated by Robert Howard. Vol. 2, mostly newspapers.

This collection consists of translations from Terence, begun in 1778, and correspondence on military, political and private matters, 1787-1821, mostly addressed to Thomas Coutts, banker.