The fonds documents Judith Fitzgerald’s personal and professional activities as a journalist, poet, and country music enthusiast, put together by Fitzgerald herself, documenting her work from the years 1965 to 1995. The majority of the records consists of research about individuals and musical acts, as well as other work-related projects that Fitzgerald was involved in. These include notes, drafts, and published work written by Fitzgerald, as well as various publications that she collected about the subjects and projects she worked on. The fonds also notably includes Fitzgerald’s creative work, including notes, drafts, manuscripts, and copies of her published books of poetry. Other materials include correspondence between Fitzgerald and friends, publishers, and individuals and institutions that she covered in her research. In addition, the fonds includes some financial records and personal records relating to Fitzgerald’s day-to-day activities and significant events in her life. These records include her marriage certificate, scrapbooks containing collected publications on herself, and notes on her autobiography.

Fonds consists of forty notebooks containing poetry and essays written by Sgt. James Denoon of the Royal Artillery. These are copies of his works dating back to 1832 made by him while at his residence, Maple Bank in Three Rivers, Quebec during roughly the period from 1883 to 1890 to pass on to his granddaughter, Bertha. Denoon’s notebooks contain sporadic notes and commentary giving further information on the subjects of his poems and on his activities. There is some repetition of material, but several notebooks containing duplicated works are found to differ and contain various revisions, in some cases with significant differences. An article written by Carmine Starnino in the Arc Poetry Magazine (Summer, 2007) about this group of notebooks after they were discovered in Westmount, Quebec, discusses the merits of Denoon’s poetry and how they fit into 19th-century society during a time when many newspapers were inserting the works of everyday “closet poets”. In an editorial statement soliciting amateur poetry, the Quebec Gazette which published at least a pair of Denoon’s works described their purpose: As may at once please the Fancy and instruct the Judgement.

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.

The F.R. Scott Collection contains documents pertaining to many differents aspects of F.R. Scott's life and career. His early political involvement in CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the political party at the origin of the creation of the federal New Democratic Party [NDP]) constitutes one series; his interest in poetry another one. Also some important legal actions are documented here about language and education rights in Quebec schools. The last series contains more personal items probably gathered for an official commemorative service: tributes, press clippings. Includes F.R. Scott's passport for Montreal's Expo 1967.

Fonds consists of one manuscript album of poetry, belonging to the Marchioness Townshend. Contains various genres of poetry in English, written between 1769 and 1771, including "comic poems on various occasions." Quarto manuscript written on laid paper in a neat scribal hand in brown ink throughout.

Fonds documents a portion of the literary activities of Sir Andrew Macphail with the typescript of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems by Lieut.-Col. John McCrae M.D. with the Essay in Character by Sir Andrew Macphail, originally published in 1919. The typescript is accompanied by a signed letter from Macphail. The fonds also contains a letter from John McCrae while on active duty in France to Carleton Noyes, Cambridge, MA, with an envelope postmarked 31 May 1916. Enclosed with the letter is an autographed signed copy of McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields.