Collection consists chiefly of an album of photographs and clippings compiled by Cecile (Burroughs) Masson. Captions date the photographs to between 1915 and 1940, with one earlier photograph from 1883 that depicts Cecile and Rodrigue Masson's wedding. Many of the personal photographs depict members of the Masson family taken in Terrebonne, Quebec (where the Masson family home was located), in Ottawa, and during travels to Italy, London, the south of France. There are 28 leaves of full page plates of travel photographs from France, Italy, and Africa. Also included in the album are postcards and newspaper clippings. One series of postcards depicts architecture in Terrebonne, Quebec. The clippings include a letter to the editor written by L. R. Masson (Mrs. L. A. Globensky) and published in the Montreal Star, 1939. Other clippings relate to the S-Plan, a bombing campaign by the Ireland Republic Army, in 1939, as well as the British royal family. The album is half bound in faux black morocco and pebbled cloth boards with the initials C. M. stamped in gilt on the front cover. A caption at the head of the second leaf reads "This album is for mother from Grace", with "mother" crossed out. An inscription on the first leaf reads "This is for my dear daughter Cecile. Many happy memories of the past - affectionately from Mother." The collection also includes two loose black and white photograph portraits, one of which is inscribed to Aunt Cecile.
The fonds consists of books and other materials about Black people in history and contemporary society which Roy States collected from his teenage years to the end of his life. The materials are primarily English-language works produced during his lifetime, and the majority of them are from Canada or the United States. The physically largest series within the collection (Series B, Monographs) consists of 679 published volumes, most of them books and a smaller number of them booklets. These volumes are all catalogued individually, with a common sublocation of "Roy States Collection" within Rare Books and Special Collections. The remaining series contain a diversity of published, ephemeral, and unpublished materials, including various items by or about Roy States himself. Series A is a group of biographical materials and other items which relate directly to States. Series C consists of booklets and brochures. Series D consists of complete issues of newspapers, and Series E consists of complete issues of serials other than newspapers. Series F contains an assortment of newspaper and magazine clippings, as well as reprinted or photocopied extracts from books, journals and other works. Series G contains materials relating to conferences and meetings, chiefly involving groups and organizations advocating for civil rights; the materials include programs, agendas, minutes and reports, as well as the text of various speeches presented at these events. Series H consists primarily of graphic materials which have been mounted in cardboard-and-plastic display sleeves or in glass-fronted wooden frames. Series I is a group of miscellaneous materials such as studies, reports, typescripts, bibliographies and leaflets.
Fonds consists of correspondence, exhibition and performance files, film and video files, lectures and writings, teaching files, drawings, designs, posters, ephemera and clippings, primarily from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Fonds documents Grant Woolmer's career as an antiquarian book dealer. The records include:
Card File. 1954 – 1998, 628.5 cm of 3" x 5" (7.5 cm x 12.5 cm) index cards describing every book owned and sold by Grant Woolmer giving description and price. Over 30,000 cards.
Catalogues. 1954 – 1998, 180 cm. Complete run of catalogues of Antique Book Shop, later Grant Woolmer Books. Over 400 different catalogues.
Financial Records. 1954 – 1998, 250 cm. 6 ledgers giving daily income and disbursements; invoices, etc.
Mailing list, undated, 5 cm. Some 200 names of institutions, dealers and private collectors mimeographed on 7 sheets.
Newspaper clippings and ephemera. 1980 –1998, 5 cm. File consisting of clippings and articles relating to the antiquarian book trade, as well obituaries of antiquarian book dealers and collectors. About 200 items.
Bates List Finder. 1980s – 1990s, 3 cm. Alphabetical telephone directory and addresses for frequently called numbers.
Fonds consists of "spiritual testament" dedicated to his sisters, Lady Vavasor and Lady Ingram, written while Belasyse was a prisoner in the Tower of London.
