Andreassen's papers fall into three series: personal materials, diaries, and professional files. Personal materials include family correspondence, 1929-ca 1932, and ca 30 cm of class notes and draft papers stemming from his student years, largely at Louisiana State. There are also files of private correspondence, some addressed to Mrs Andreassen, from the period 1975-1980. Andreassen's diaries cover the years 1936-1940, 1945-1952, 1962-1965, and 1968-1976. They record the working day and are interleaved with memoranda and correspondence, often of a personal nature. Professional files vary in nature with each stage of Andreassen's career, but correspondence and reports are consistent elements. To these may be added copies of surveys and inventories of the Louisiana Historical Records Survey, expense accounts and photographs arising from his work for UNRRA, records of archival deposits and drafts on an institutional history prepared as Archivist of CNR, and annual reports written as McGill Archivist.

The fonds contains four original manuscript diaries (1 per calendar year), from 1889 to 1991 (transatlantic) with original watercolor drawings by John Henry Wye, Allan Line ship’s surgeon.

Frobisher's papers comprise a letterbook of the North-West Co. containing copies of letters written by Frobisher from April 1787 to October 1788, two original letters to Simon McTavish, 1796, and one from him, 1787, business and legal documents, largely concerning the estate of James McGill, 1810-1834, and a diary, 1806-1810, mostly a record of where he dined.

Consisting of documents detailing the 1785 travels and observations of Joseph Hadfield through the Northwest fur trade of North America and to Niagara Falls (probably written after 1810). Observations are primarily economic in nature; however, there are also references to the geographical and cultural surroundings.

The collection documents the life of Katsuji Nakashima since his arrival in Canada in 1909. The material consists of a personal handwritten journal written on rice paper in ancient Japanese; a Dominion of Canada certificate of Naturalization issued in 1919; a passport issued by the Imperial Japanese Government (1921); invitations, bills and other ephemeral items (ca. 1910-1945); military photographs; an Internment Camp Ration Book; and other personal documents reflecting the civilian and military activities of Katsuji Nakashima. The collection also contains personal belongings such as Buddhist prayer items.

Fonds consists of original documents and printed materials concerning King’s research, but there is also some general correspondence, student materials, and personal papers.

Research materials comprise manuscripts, addresses, and research notes. The manuscripts and addresses (1901-1933) contain essays on fog-signals and the transmission of sound, radiation, the physics of viscous fluids, the hot-wire anemometer, astronomy, and theoretical problems. The research notes (1904-1935) comprise approximately 50 files. Eight of these concern fog-signal research (1915 1926) and include some correspondence. Other topics include radiation, physics of gases and liquids, acoustics, astronomy, electromagnetism and mathematical problems.

General correspondence covering the years 1908-1936 contains letters from his fellow physicists, including Rutherford, A.N. Shaw, E.S. Bieler and H.T. Barnes, on research and personal matters. There are also letters of introduction (1905), correspondence regarding his appointment at McGill, letters to the editor of Nature (1926), the National Research Council (1933-1934), and the Central Computing Bureau (1918). As well, files concerning ice research (1920), tests at Prescott, including his diary of the expedition (1920), and the St. Lawrence waterway (1931-1932) can be found here.

King's private papers comprise a diary for 1902, reading notes and reviews of Maria Chapdelaine (1919-1921), his pension papers, and an inventory of periodicals in his library. There are also two formal photographs and a number of snapshots of school groups, Cambridge scenes, and laboratory equipment.

Fonds reflects L.-G. Papineau's daily work as an engineer between the years 1901 and 1905. Each volume is a daily diary, covering a year. Daily entries describe the activities of the people in his office. Most entries are technical: daily follow-ups on public works projects, including in the Montreal and Sorel harbours, Hochelaga, and on the Saint-Pierre River, meetings, finished tasks, and the absence of workers. Some are family related or comments on the news (for example, Queen Victoria's funeral on February 4th. 1901). Weather conditions and water levels are reported regularly, as it influences the pace of work on the construction sites.

Madame Desrivière's diaries describe social, family and economic life in Montréal and Stansbridge, Québec. The first (1843-1846) and last (1853-1854) volumes are in French, the others in English.

Abbott's papers reflect her family background, education and private life, as well as her research and publications on medical history. There are no materials relating to her work as a pathologist. Abbott's family background is documented by a printed history (1931) of St. Matthew's, Grenville, of which Joseph Abbott was the first rector, and glass negative views of the family home in St. Andrew's. Records of her education comprise notebooks (1886-1890) for courses at McGill in classics, philosophy, English literature, and science, her graduation photograph, and a photocopy of her address as Donalda Valedictorian in 1890. Private records include diaries (1930-1940), a commonplace-book (1929-1938), and a bundle of notes, clippings, poems, letters and invitations. Three versions of her autobiography survive: the finished "Autobiographical sketch" of 1928 (photocopy), part of an undated autobiography, and a brief autobiographical note. Records of Abbott's historical research and publications include extensive notes on the history of medicine in Québec as well as papers relating to the publication of her History. Other files contain notes on the admission of women to McGill and other universities, the establishment of the Medical Museum, the amalgamation of the medical faculties of Bishop's and McGill with some administrative records of the medical faculty. Dr. Abbott's professional correspondence is represented only by a file on the Federation of Canadian Medical Women, 1938.

This series consists of day diaries (one for each year from 1953 to 1957), one composition notebook with clippings and hand-copied poems from other authors (1931-1934), typed notes and story drafts (1933), hand-written character lists (1933), a journal with notes for novels (1950), a notebook with a loose leaf list of Duncan’s paintings (1944-1956), and one unpaginated ledger of accounts (1945-1957).