This collection consists chiefly of 1,634 aerial photographs, 162 of which are stereographs, dated from 1938 to 1975. The first six containers consist of Landsat 1:1 000 000 Prints & Negatives. The photographs depict various geographic and geological features including mountains, deserts, volcanoes, farmland, lakes, and rivers. Some photographs depict roads, settlements, and dams. Canada and the United States features prominently in this collection however there are also photographs of the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. There are 52 pages of documents most of which are indexes to the photographs. There are also shipping transmittals, survey cards, letters, a purchase order, and diagrams with flight lines and photo set numbers. The 15 maps in this collection are of flight lines (some with film roll numbers added), hand-drawn maps of locations in the photographs, geographic maps, and physiographic maps.

The collection consists primarily of recordings on audio cassette of beginner-level language lessons in Ojibwa, Cree, and Inuktitut; authored variously by Basil Johnston, S.T. Mallon et al., C. Douglas Ellis et al., and Louis-Philippe Vaillancourt. The majority of the included material dates from the 1970s. The accompanying language learning texts for the Ojibwa and Inuktitut audiocassettes are included in the collection, along with duplicate recordings of 35 of the Cree audiocassettes on 25 compact discs. The collection also contains a recording of the 1995 CBC Calgary radio program "Voices of the First Nations : The Prairies."

The Burney family manuscript collection consists chiefly of material created by Fanny Burney (1752-1840), whose novel, Evelina (1778), was a bestseller during her life time and is still in print, as well as by Burney family members and friends. The manuscript collection contains correspondence, letter fragments, and a journal kept by Fanny Burney (1812), and other materials by Burney herself, other members of her family, and members of their circle. The collection also includes significant correspondence for her father, the musician and musical historian Charles Burney (1726-1814).

The collection consists of programs and recordings of ensemble performances (including opera) by students, faculty members, and guest artists associated with the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and performed at one of the School's halls (Pollack Hall, Redpath Hall, Tanna Schulich Hall, and Clara Lichtenstein Hall), as well as some performances at venues outside McGill.

Collection includes a scrapbook created by Maude Lilian Bremner during her time in South Africa as a teacher to Boer children in refugee camps, as well as other related loose clippings and ephemera. The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings, postcards, and other ephemera tipped in. Many of the clippings are articles reprinting letters written home by Bremner and other volunteer teachers in her contingent. Collection also includes a published Memorandum respecting the engagement of teachers for the refugee camps in South Africa.

The World War I Clippings Collection consists of approximately 635 newspaper clippings and articles related to the First World War. Most of the clippings in this collection consist of daily reporting on troop movements and events that occurred during World War I, with some editorial and commentary pieces. Also included are clippings of maps, most from unidentified newspapers, and clipped recruitment ads. Specific topics include the sinking of the Lusitania, McGill participation in the war, the siege of Przemysl, Canadian troop deployments and casualties, and the Pope. The majority of the clippings come from the Montreal Gazette (approximately 140 clippings) and the Philadelphia Public Ledger (approximately 120 clippings). Around 50 clippings are from the The Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia) and a handful are from The Times (London). Also included are some articles from the D. A. W. War Tracts (numbers 5-7), Berlin, and the Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin (New York). The fonds also contains a copy of the War Gazetteer, compiled by Charles McD. Puckette and Carrington Weems, issued by the New York Evening Post in 1914. The earliest article appears to be reporting on England's declaration of war on Germany, dated 5 August 1914.

The collection contains thirteen documents concerning 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.

The Julius Schloss Collection consists of Julius Schloss’s complete portfolio of published and unpublished compositions, sketches, studies and analyses. In addition, it contains documentary artefacts, including correspondence, newspaper, magazine and journal clippings, concert and competition programs, media reviews, and photographs, that chronicle both the early life of this German-Jewish composer in Europe and his later days in exile in Shanghai and the United States.
The content of the collection pertains to several lines of historical research: First, Schloss’s close relationship with Alban Berg as a personal assistant and chief copy editor, as well as his interaction with other contemporaries in Vienna during the 1920s, may offer new insight in studies of the Second Viennese School. The items of Bergiana, including a handwritten Baudelaire poem by Berg which served as a “secret program” to the Lyric Suite and a selection of correspondence surrounding Berg’s last wishes for the Lyric Suite score, are particularly valuable. Second, Schloss’s ten-year exile in Shanghai, documented in assorted correspondence, programs, reviews and miscellaneous artefacts, may provide a new account of the Shanghai generation. Finally, the continuation of Schloss’s life in the United States as a struggling composer and teacher bears witness to the difficult conditions for the American émigré population after World War II.

The collection contains 164 botanical and zoological paintings created chiefly by Elizabeth Gwillim as well as possibly by her sister Mary Symonds while living in Chennai, India (then Madras). The collection includes 121 watercolours of birds with inscriptions, 31 watercolours of fish, and twelve of flowers, drawn from life rather than specimens. The paintings reflect the sisters' time in Madras during which, as artists and letter writers, they created a substantial visual record of the landscape and inhabitants of Madras and environs. The paintings also reflect Gwillim's scientific pursuits, including her study of botany.