This series consists of 399 incoming and outgoing letters and postcards, administrative and financial papers, catalogue lists, bookplates, and manuscripts pertaining to collection development and other library-related activities for the Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Libraries from 1918-1941. The correspondence relates directly to collection development of these libraries from 1921-1941; however, the years 1931 and 1933 are not present.
Correspondence is primarily between Casey Wood and other individuals, such as Gerhard R. Lomer, Lilian Bates, Elizabeth Abbott, J. H. Fleming, McGill’s Order Department, Henry Mousley, V. C. Wynne Edwards, Margaret Hibbard, Otto Kals, and A. P. S. Glassco, as well as, book dealers, such as Messrs. Wheldon and Wesley and Messrs Bernard Quaritch, Ltd.. Other correspondence is also present between other individuals relating to McGill University Library collections including those donating materials to the libraries and others affiliated with Wood.
Subjects within the collection often concern financial and administrative information, purchases or material requests relating to ornithology, falconry, zoology, and Wood’s research and writing. Within the catalogue lists and manuscripts for the libraries, some relate specifically to medieval, medieval Persian, and fifteenth-century manuscripts. Additionally, this series also includes clippings and photographs exchanged between Wood and Library staff.
Notably, one volume within this series is dedicated to the evolution of the Emma Shearer Wood Library bookplate with the original drawing designed by United States government engraver G. F. C. Smillie and 7 other versions of the bookplates between 1918-1922. The later bookplate was by Bumpus of London designed by M. P. Barrett.

File contains various materials related to Casey Wood's research and writing on parrots as well as John the Third. It consists of:
-Manuscripts of the passing of John the Third : An appreciation / by Casey A. Wood
-Psittacosis (parrot fever) and fate of John III
-Rough unassorted notes for a proposed work on parrots and their ways
-The rival races: A brief and simply illustrated story of two birds, published in two par(ro)ts

This series consists of 23 volumes and 6 files focusing on travel, research, and expedition activities conducted during Casey Wood's ornithological research trips from 1920-1937, including periodical and newspaper publications written by Wood during this time. This series consists of manuscripts and articles relating to letters to friends and family providing accounts of his travels, clippings, photographs, printed ephemera, photostats, artwork, and feathers from John III. Some of the volumes contain manuscripts, notes, and/or photostats, while others are scrapbooks containing multiple record types seemingly curated, arranged and mounted by Wood or as directed by him.
Within this series are 209 incoming and outgoing correspondence including letters, notes and cards. Individuals in correspondence with Wood include Cora Raymond, G. R. Lomer, E. V. Sanderson, Sir George Perley, Sir Charles Major, H. Kirke Swann, Edith Hayes, Emma Shearer Wood, W. E. Wait, Sun Engraving Co., Taylor and Francis, Bitty and Seaborne Ltd., Stuart Baker, G. M. Henry, and Allan Brooks. Other individuals present in this series include Mabel Satterlee, L. F. Struthers, W. J. Belcher, J. Sutton, G. M. Henry, F. Marjorie Fyfe, J. C. Harrison, Alexander Wetmore, and Dr. Andreas Nell.
Places referenced within this series' files include South America (1920), British Guiana (1922), Fiji (1923), Oceania, New Zealand, Australia (1923-1924), England and Scotland, Ceylon (1925-1934), Colombo, Kandy, and Italy (1934-1936). Some topics and research areas of note include ornithology, zoology, bird protection, travelling, nightingales (1920-1934), John III (1924, 1937), “Coloured Plates of the Birds of Ceylon” (1925-1927), Emma Shearer Wood and Blacker Library collections, Sinhalese weights, Wood’s heath, Ali ibn Isa, and political printed material on Italy during the late 1930s.
There are also a number of photostats of publications or manuscripts copied approximately in 1937 related to Emperor Frederick II’s “de Arte Venandi cum Avibus.” These photostats were used for reference during these research trips for Casey A. Wood and F. Marjorie Fyfe’s published translation “The Art of Falconry.”

File contains manuscript material and drafts of and notes for the works "Birds of Fiji" and "A Collection of Birds from the Fiji Islands," by Casey Wood and Alexander Wetmore.