The fonds consists of McGill published materials and memorabilia owned by Russel R. Merifield and Helen Kydd and includes a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings mostly related to football at McGill (1935-1939); annotdated Kappa Alpha Theta Pledge Book (1936); 5 Old McGill yearbooks (1904, 1905, 1907, 1938, 1941); Women Graduates of McGill University, 1888-1939; McGill, a Portal to Greatness by J.W. Jeakins; My Old College by Stephen Leacock; 3 issues of McGill News (vol. 2 no. 4, 1921; vol. 25, no. 1, 1943; vol 31, no. 4, 1950); 2 reunion dinner programmes (1921, 1964); 1 Intercollegiate Football Champions dinner programme (1938); and 2 convocation programmes (1903, 1907).

Fonds consists of original files and printed materials falling into two themes. The larger of the two concerns Pavlasek’s work on the Superior Council of Education (1967-1972). Correspondence, notes and minutes deal with the establishment of the Université du Québec, the organization of a Council of universities, and legislation regarding capital funding of universities. The McGill Senate is the subject of the second group, comprising correspondence, minutes, reports and submissions from 1963 to 1971.

This small file of Van Horne's correspondence concerns McGill affairs between 1901 and 1915. Apart from routine notices of Governors' meetings, there are appeals from professors for funds to purchase equipment, collections and scholarships, letters from Sir William Peterson on the appointment of Carrie Derrick as Professor of Botany, from E.B. Greenshields on the University Magazine and from others, including Sir William Macdonald, Helen R.Y. Reid and R. Tait Mackenzie.

Three scrapbooks document Birks' involvement with McGill, particularly with the Theological Colleges and the Faculty of Divinity. One contains newspaper clippings and correspondence (1912-1913) concerning the United College of Theology. The second scrapbook contains newspaper clippings and correspondence (1912-1948) on the establishment of the Faculty of Divinity at McGill. The third contains telegrams concerning the appointment of Sir Auckland Geddes as Principal in 1919, as well as newspaper clippings regarding the McGill Fund Campaign (1911) and the Patriotic Fund, (1914-1917). There is also correspondence about church matters and the Joint Theological Colleges and brief accounts of the establishment of the latter, correspondence, minutes, reports, reminiscences and notes document the establishment of the Faculty of Divinity in 1948. There is also a builder's contract and accounts for the Birks building on University Street and a draft fragment of a historical story or novel set in the 14th century about a Richard Birks.