Fonds consists of a one document, a manuscript of reminiscences of Charles James, born in Montreal in 1835. The document is internally dated in April 1915. James describes his childhood as the son of a carriage and sleigh builder born in England who conducted much business for the British military stationed in Montreal. The family resided on Craig Street. Reminiscences include descriptions of Montreal, the building of the locks on the Lachine canal, a trip up the Ottawa River to Bytown (Ottawa) and then to Kingston, where the family resided for a time. James joined his father in the trade of carriage trimming as a young man before becoming a Baptist minister in Stratford, Canada, and later Wellesley.

Fonds contains five notebook kept by medical student S. J. Bennett while studying at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine. Each notebook is devoted to a subject of study, including one notebook each labelled "Medicine", "Bacteriology" and "Obstetrics" and two notebooks labelled "Pathology." The notes inside are dated between 1907 and 1908. The notes are organized in some cases by instructor and in some cases according to medical conditions.

These papers comprise office files for the Parks and Playgrounds Association from 1902 to 1972, and for the Community Garden League from 1933 to 1959. The records of the Parks and Playgrounds Association include administrative and financial records, scrapbooks, photographs, public relations material and information files. Administrative records consist of general and committee minutes, 1902-1972, annual reports, 1902-1964, personnel files, 1937-1947, files of correspondence and memoranda on individual sites as well as themes, e.g. water pollution, 1906-1972; and various surveys and studies, 1912-1967. Financial operations are documented by budgets, 1960-1971, financial statements, 1948-1967; ledger sheets, 1951-1961; and invoices, 1939-1957, 1967. Scrapbooks of newsclippings cover the periods 1902-1904, 1916-1932, 1935-1937, 1939, and 1949-1964; some scrapbooks are thematic, e.g. one on the Mount Royal tram line. Over 1,000 photographs taken ca 1906-ca 1960 show parks, playgrounds, landmarks, street scenes, recreation activities, and the work of the Association. Public relations files, 1937-1952, 1955-1962, contain press releases, briefs, petitions, legislative bills, and correspondence related to lobbying and public awareness. Information files contain largely printed material on parks and recreation in Canada and the United States, 1935-1968. Administrative records of the Community Garden League include minutes of its general committee, 1934-1952; annual reports, 1933-1959; correspondence and information files (1938-1949), and notices, 1938-1953, 1959.

Collection consists of 36 autograph letters written to James Cameron and his son Archie. The correspondence includes letters by friends, associates, and members of the Cameron family in Toronto, Lake Beauport, Scotland, England, Hull, and Montreal. Subjects include family news, freemasonry, business (regarding deed of sales), factory work in Toronto, curling, and an April Fools' Day letter. With three extant envelopes.

Collection contains a manuscript letter from Henry Lyman to his wife, Mary, in Granby; dated July 25, 1849, when the druggist shop Wm. Lyman & Co. was located at 194 and 196 St. Paul St. in Montreal, the letter deals principally with the cholera epidemic in the city.

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$.

The Montreal Mendelssohn Choir Collection comprises several volumes of sheet music from the Choir’s library. The choral folios were compiled and bound into eight volumes at the time of their donation to McGill University in 1895. The estate of D. Torrance Fraser, a former Choir member, donated another four volumes of choral music in 1926 and 1927. Three volumes contain second copies of the pieces from the Choir’s library donated thirty years prior; the fourth volume donated in 1927 contains a number of pieces performed by the Choir but not found in the seven extant volumes from the Choir’s library.

Collection consists of 38 letters written primarily by John Wood Senior to family members in England. Many of these were written to a sister or sister-in-law and a few are addressed to his brother, Will Wood, a watchmaker and jeweller in London, including two in which Wood includes a list of trade supplies to order. Four letters are from John Wood's son, Peter Wentworth Wood. One letter is by John's wife, Anna. Contents include topics such as the country's economy, Canadian-British politics, the Woods' watchmaking and jewellery business, crops, slavery, and the American Civil War, as well as local Montreal news on subjects such as fires, the Victoria Bridge, a cholera outbreak, the 1856 Railroad Celebration, and a visit by the Prince of Wales. Letters also include family news, particularly of John Wood's children Peter, John, and Charles, seafaring disasters, gold mines, improvements in shipping in the St. Lawrence seaway and the Atlantic Ocean, the expansion of railroads, and the Atlantic Telegraph. Letters date between 25 November 1839 and 13 December 1867. One is a crossed letter.