The fonds documents Sharon Thesen’s personal and professional life as a poet, editor, and professor from 1961 to 1989. All records in the fonds were collected by Thesen herself, and are primarily composed of correspondence, journals, and creative work. Most of the creative work is composed of drafts and edited versions of Thesen’s own poetry, essays, and articles, but also includes work sent to her for review. While most of the records are textual, there are a small number of pictures and postcards that were sent to and taken by Thesen, and are mostly of a personal nature. Notably, a large section of the fonds is made up of letters that include correspondence between other published and acclaimed authors such as Michael Ondaatje, Christopher Dewdney, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Ken Norris, Judith Fitzgerald, Phyllis Webb, Gerald Burns, and others. Lastly, the fonds also includes Thesen’s journals from the mid-60s to the mid-80s which contain her daily activities, her personal thoughts, as well as some of her creative work.
The fonds is arranged into three different series, Chronological Files, Journals, and Personal & Professional Records, as per the internal organization of the records. The main forms of these records are textual records, but also include graphic/photographic materials and mixed media. The records are arranged chronologically and intellectually within the series.

The fonds includes a copy of No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill), 1914-1919 owned by Walter de M. Scriver and ephemera relating to Canadian General Hospital No. 3. It also contains a handwritten poem entitled "Tune of T'anks," composed by Scriver for his family and dated France, 1915.

The fonds documents William B. Howell's poetry. The fonds contains a bound typescript of poems with two drawings by W.W. Francis.

Papers consist of personal correspondence, including substantial family correspondence, diaries, journals, engagement books, ledgers, menus, manuscript poems, galley proofs, lecture notes, scrapbooks, and photographs. It includes correspondence, 1874-1935; a diary of Drummond's trip to Great Britain, 1902; dinner menus, 1902-1903; engagement books, 1902-1906; galley proofs, 1905-1911; Journal of Impressions kept at Savanna la Mar, Jamaica, Windsor and Montreal, 1903-1911; lecture notes taken at McGill, 1878-1882; ledgers containing financial entries and patients' accounts during Drummond's practice in Knowlton and Montreal, 1885-1889; notebooks containing manuscripts poems, drafts and clippings, 1894-1909; scrapbooks related to literary topics, including clippings about Drummond's public readings, and book reviews, 1854-1907 and scrapbooks related to Drummond's dogs, 1890-1907. There are also some papers of Mrs. W.H. Drummond, including a typescript of her Life of W.H. Drummond; and diaries recording her trips to United States and Canada, 1892, 1903.