Bell's papers are evenly divided between student notebooks and professional correspondence. The notebooks for his undergraduate courses in mathematics, physical and biological sciences, and engineering cover the period 1858-1861. His correspondence includes letters from John William Dawson, George Mercer Dawson, Archibald Byron Macallum, Henry Taylor Bovey, C.H. McLeod, B.J. Harrington, David Ross McCord, and Major H.H. Lyman, largely on Bell's expeditions and publications, and on the affairs of the Geological Survey and the McGill Graduates' Society, 1898-1907.