The fonds consists of correspondence, course material, research and interview notes, articles, speeches, transcripts, grant applications, and other records pertaining to Dale Thomson's activities as a researcher, professor, journalist and Liberal Party activist from the 1940s to 1999 in Canada, The United States and other parts of the world. There is also a considerable amount of original, primary source material collected by Dale Thomson for his books. The fonds is composed of the following series:

1. Research Activities
2. Teaching and Administrative Activities
3. Political Activities

Although there are three separate series, it must be noted that some information contained in series files is often relevant to more than that area of activity. This is especially true of correspondence files.

The Files papers document his activities as administrator of the Humanities Group and the English Department (ca 1946-1956, with some earlier material) and as a teacher. Administrative materials comprise about 1.5 m of information and correspondence files concerning the business of Senate, the Faculties of Arts and Science and Graduate Studies, the Humanities Group of the Arts Faculty, and the English Department. English Department material forms the largest part of the papers with files on honours and graduate students (including sessional registration forms), reading lists, examinations, awards, job applications, examination of theses, the administration of Moyse Hall, freshman orientation, and personal as well as general correspondence. There are also files pertaining to Files' work for the Montreal branch of the Humanities Association of Canada. Teaching materials consist of a large number of student essays, stories, examination papers and poems, including some by Louis Dudek and Irving Layton, ca 1937-1950. From Files' student days come lecture notes on the history of English language, 1921. There are also approximately 25 reprints of articles by Files' acquaintances and colleagues and copies of some journal and newspaper articles by and about Files.

Professor Robert Vogel's fonds presents a mixture of his administrative, teaching and research activities from 1952 to 1994. Beside his professorial as well as administrative papers, he collected many supporting documents which helped him carry out different tasks. The series are arranged according to his position as a professor and his different administrative positions at McGill.

The series consist of:

Professor's Papers
Secretary of the Faculty of Arts and Science Papers
Chairman of the History Department Papers
Vice-Dean's Papers
Dean's Papers