Fonds consists of negatives and proof prints taken by Robert T.G. Nicol under the name of Personal Studio between 1946 and 1996. Studio, home portraits and candid photography of families and weddings, as well as commercial jobs for many local industries and businesses document comprehensively the growth and changes in the way of life in the Waterloo Region in the post-war era. Many nationally important companies employed Nicol, some as their "house photographer": these include B.F. Goodrich, Budd Automotive, Mutual Life Insurance Co., Bell Telephone, Electrohome, Raytheon, IBM, and Greb Shoes. Many types of businesses are represented: storefronts and interiors of banks, clothing, department, music, furniture and grocery stores, dairies, factories, restaurants, hotels and motels, churches, service stations, car dealerships, service industries, construction trades, and more.

Materials created or accumulated by Julia McCarthy during her professional and personal life. Includes journals and personal correspondence received by McCarthy, drafts of poems and anthologies, professional correspondence related to the publication of McCarthy's work, correspondence related to applications for grants and awards, awards received by McCarthy, interviews and articles about McCarthy, and work by and about other authors accumulated by McCarthy.

Materials created or accumulated by Robert Shipley during his personal and professional life. Includes Shipley's personal journals and notes; articles written by Shipley in different news media and materials related to Shipley’s books and publications; personal and professional correspondence related to his time in the Canadian Armed Forces, different jobs he held, and his time at the University of Waterloo; and research materials created and accumulated by Shipley on different matters.

Materials created or accumulated by the Carold Institute during its active years (1989-2016). Includes materials related to the administration of the Institute through different meetings, financial information, and correspondence; publications associated with different events and programs the Institute organized; historical materials covering the institutionalization and evolution of the Institute; and materials related to awards and recognitions given by the Institute in different occasions.

One item of correspondence addressed to Maryse Choisy by an unidentified sex worker, signed "a fan." The writer of the letter states that she has read Choisy's "Psychoanalysis of the Prostitute" and encourages her not to make the mistake of making generalizations about all sex workers. In specific, she points out that she does not consider her clients lovers and thinks of them as no more a customer than a waitress thinks of diners in a restaurant. She also states that she is engaged in sex work purely for the money. As well, the writer notes that she has a pimp and that they have a positive relationship, are married, and enjoy a healthy sex life. They met while she was already working as a sex worker, and he was already working as a pimp and had no desire to change each other's profession. She also notes that they did not sleep together until after they moved in together. The letter is ended by noting that they eventually would like to settle down, and that they are saving to open their own bar or liquor store one day.

Materials relating to the professional life of Michael Bird. Covers his time teaching at Renison University College, as well as his research and publications on folk art, fraktur, religious imagery and film.

Consists of Marion Conroy's copies of material given to delegates at the National Conference of Regional Chairmen, Consumer Branch, Wartime Prices and Trade Board held in 1944, and includes the agenda and outline of issues for the Conference, as well as a separate report submitted by Kate Aitken, Supervisor of the Conservation Programme, on the establishment and progress across Canada of "Remake Centres." These centres were for teaching women to conserve new yard goods by making over existing garments.

The fonds also contains a scrapbook kept by Marion Conroy of clippings and ephemera dating from 1941-1944. As well as documenting Marion Conroy's activities, the scrapbook contains information on the organization and personalities involved in the Board and the Consumer Branch, such Donald Gordon and Byrne Hope Sanders. Also present are news accounts of the many rules and regulations applied to all aspects of the production and consumption of consumer goods, from fashion, food and drink, and housing, to the delivery and return of purchased goods.