This collection consists of materials dated from approximately 1850-1981, but predominantly from 1913-1940, relating to Dr. Casey Albert Wood’s research, writing, correspondence, and personal interest concerning ornithology, vertebrate zoology, memoir and family history, Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Library collection development, ophthalmology, politics, and current events. Materials relate chiefly to Wood’s “Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology” (1921-1956), falconry (1930s), his unpublished memoir (1930s), the development of McGill University’s Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Libraries (1918-1941), the history of ophthalmology (1925-1936), “Fundus Oculi” (1911-1934), his travels and research expeditions studying birds in their natural habitat (1920-1940), political interests, and correspondence relating to these activities and subjects.

There are approximately 2902 incoming and outgoing pieces of correspondence including letters, postcards, notes, telegrams, and cards. Series 1) Research and writing, contains the largest volume of correspondence relating to “the Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology.” While Series 2) Research trips, contains the largest portion of photographs. Other materials in this collection include research notes, manuscripts, page and galley proofs, book and article reprint publications, postcards, artwork, glass plate negatives, book plates, palm leaf manuscripts, artefacts, printed ephemera, clippings, journals, and administration and financial records relating to Wood’s publications or the Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Libraries.

There are gaps within this collection relating to geographic locations, as not all locations Wood is known to have visited are represented or are only minimally represented. Asian countries, such as China or Japan, are not represented in this collection. While geographic locations that are prominent within the collection are Fiji, Sri Lanka and India.

The series consists of 1) research and writing (ca. 1850-1956); 2) research trips (1920-1937); 3) scrapbooks (1887-1946); 4) collection development (1918-1941); 5) published books (1907-1981); 6) artefacts (191-?, 1920-1937); and 7) glass negative plates (1924, 1927, 1930, 1956).

This subseries focuses on the unpublished memoir of Casey A. Wood, which consists of manuscripts, typescripts, notes, research project notes and publications, correspondence (1888-1939), photographs, clippings and printed material, and journals (1891, 1930-1931) from approximately 1850-1939. Wood had assistance from family members, professional connections, and friends to compile his biographical information for the memoir. Wood was living in Rome during the mid- to late-1930s, so much of the Canadian research was conducted by family members Samuel Casey Wood III, Alan Wood, and Edith Hayes. There is correspondence between Wood and his family on the progress of the memoir, their family, and personal lives. The subseries consists of approximately 110 letters and 1 telegram with additional correspondence, clippings, and other materials integrated into the memoir’s manuscript and typescripts.
Individuals addressed within the correspondence and other materials include Alan Wood, Samuel Casey Wood III, George Iles, H. Clay Evans, Dr. George H. Mathewson, Francis J. Shepherd, Harvey Cushing, Dr. George H. Simmons, Casey Hayes, Josephine Seymour, Dr. Charles P. Small, Ms. Slaughter, Major J. C. Dawson, Dr. J. C. Simpson, J. R. Slonaker, Irving S. Cutter, Dr. H. D. Birkett, Dr. Franck Brawley, Dr. Maude Abbott, Elizabeth E. Abbott, Dr. W. W. Francis, Harry Harris, G. R. Lomer, Dr. Harry Vanderbilt Wurdemann, Dr. C. F. Wylde, V. C. Wynne Edwards, Dr. Andreas Nell, Sir William Osler, C. F. Wylde, Frank Allport, and Norma Shearer.
Throughout the subseries common topics include providing information for the memoir, travel, careers, education, Italy during the late 1930s, politics, ornithology, zoology, donations of materials by Casey Wood, family, Emperor Frederick II and “the Art of Falconry,” Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Library collections, aviculture, John III, the Feather book, animal protection, history of medicine, “Coloured Plates of the Birds of Ceylon,” Ali ibn Isa, and Wood’s research, career, and health.
The printed material includes a variety of leaflets, brochures, cards, invitations, tickets, bookplates, booklets, clippings etc. from or about various current events, travel experiences, publications, etc.. Within the subseries' photographs are images of Dr. Thomas Woodruff, Emma Shearer Wood, Casey Wood, Marjorie Fyfe, James Shearer, Eliza Shearer, Dr. Richmond, Dr. Ridgway, other family members and friends, and from research trips. Places related to Wood’s life mentioned in this subseries include the United States, Canada, Germany, Sri Lanka, England, Italy, Ethiopia, Vienna, France, Afghanistan, British Guiana, Australia, Fiji, McGill and Emma Shearer Wood Libraries, Bishops’ College, Western General Hospital, Stanford University, and the Chicago Ophthalmological Society.

This series consists of research, writing, and correspondence files relating to Casey Wood's major and minor publications and unpublished works, as well as, others assisting in Wood's publications, research, or writing about Wood. The majority of the research and writing materials for Wood's published and unpublished works were created between 1920-1940, while other materials collected during Wood's life, those associated with his memoir and obituary, date from approximately 1850-1943.
Some prominent writings by Wood include “Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology” (1921-1956), his unpublished memoir (ca. 1850-1939), “Fundus Oculi” (1911-1934), Wood family history (1920-1940), “Birds of Fiji” (1920-1928), “Through Forest and Jungle in Kashmir and North India” (1921-1934); Persian, Arabic and Hindustani manuscripts (1927-1934); and “The Art of Falconry” (1942).
The series consists of many volumes and files containing a number of record types including manuscripts, typescripts, proofs, publications, photographs, correspondence, clippings, printed material, postcards, journals, administrative and financial records, and artwork. Some of the volumes are scrapbooks containing many of these materials mounted within, while others include similar materials bound within. These volumes do not necessarily have a clear organization but are sometimes arranged chronologically or by correspondent.

There are 2230 incoming and outgoing pieces of correspondence including letters, postcards, notes, telegrams, and cards. Subseries 1) Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Zoology includes 1313 pieces of correspondence, the largest number of correspondence within the collection.

This collection consists of 15 autograph letters between a sender who is only identified by the initials "J.T." and a Miss Fanny Caulfield. Also included is a love letter by Irish poet J. Finnerty, dated 1852.

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.

Three letters from Seaton relating to the Rebellion of 1837, including a letter to General Fitzroy Sommerset about the capture of St-Eustache.

Fonds consists primarily of correspondence between Hertel de Rouville and members of the Canadian government, including Chief Secretary of Lower Canada Sir Thomas William Clinton Murdoch (1809-1891) and Governors General Lord Gosford and Charles Bagot, regarding financial losses he incurred during the rebellions of 1837, 1838, and 1839, and half-pay claims dating from his time as captain of the Canadian Voltigeurs during the War of 1812. Also included are five envelopes with wax seals intact.

Fonds consists of six autograph signed letters written at Montreal by Ann Adams, dated between 24 March 1834 to 26 December 1937, to her son Edward H. in Providence, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia. Letters contain local news (churches and organs built, the railroad to St. Johns, fires, printing and publishing, cholera, etc.), observations on the worsening tensions between Papineau and the "Canadiens" and the "Loyalists," and accounts of preaching by an Indigenous convert to Christianity.

This collection reflects Henry S. Chapman's relationships with a number of important figures in Montreal's political and business history, between roughly 1833 and 1853, the period following Chapman's return to London. A significant amount of the material in this collection is related to the 1837-1838 Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions (especially in Montreal), as well as events occurring immediately after the uprisings.

Consists of copies of original material, chiefly correspondence, arranged roughly by date. The contents of letters (1835-1853) include business partnerships, political reform, and personal news. Significant correspondents include Louis-Joseph Papineau, Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Jacob Dewitt, François-Antoine Larocque (of Laroque and Bernard), Joseph Perreault, and Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan. There is also a partial manuscript on Canadian history and pages from a scrapbook, both dating from the 1830s.

Fonds consists of letters written to P.M. Roget by various people, 1830-1856.