Collection contains prints of Canadian landscapes done by William Henry Bartlett in 1841 and portraits of prominent 17th and 18th century politicians from Europe and Canada. Also included are letters from English prime ministers dating around the 1700s. The collection is arranged in one series consisting of print engravings, a file of Bartlett prints, and a scrapbook containing letters.

Contains one holograph letter from James Hoyes Panton to Drinkwater (C.P.R.) requesting a pass to travel free during the summer in order to do geological research, dated April 16, 1884.

The Sims family collection encompasses records of the Sims and Cook, Davidson and Garden families retained by members of the two family branches that came together when Harvey James Sims and Florence Katherine Roos married in 1902. Their Sims and Davidson forbears were equally significant in the history of the Waterloo-Wellington area and in the growth and development of agriculture, education, business and government. Harvey James Sims and Florence Katherine Roos were deeply involved in their local community of Berlin, (later Kitchener) Ontario and their own records contain significant additions to our knowledge of local personalities and affairs. Harvey was a childhood and lifelong friend of William Lyon Mackenzie King; they wrote and visited each other regularly. King's sister Bella was also a close friend of Florence from school days on.