The collection consists of various documents, photographs, and audio and video recordings generated by the official activities of the Bethune Foundation; also included are documents, publications and photographs related to Dr. Bethune and to China or Chinese medicine, pamphlets, posters, and Bethune Foundation newsletters.

The fonds contains Norman Bethune's letter correspondences, including numerous letters between him and his former wife Frances Penney. The majority of the fonds consists of material about Bethune: newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, slides and negatives, an original play about his life, a documentary script, various memorabilia (e.g. commemorative stamps, brochures, pamphlets, buttons and pins, posters, fliers), and writings about Bethune's work in Canada, Spain, and China.