The collection consists of materials acquired by Special Collections and the University Archives and maintained for purposes of historical research. It includes reports, correspondence, committee minutes, course materials, architectural and other drawings, newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, posters, brochures, and other published materials. The materials are arranged alphabetically by subject or name (e.g. organisations, University departments, events, buildings/places, and individuals).

The papers consist of McLennan's reminiscences of his Fairview days and life as a Rhodes scholar. Also included is a series of correspondence dating from 1924 to 1976. The correspondence has been arranged in two ways. The general correspondence has been simply arranged chronologically while other letters and cards, which McLennan sent to the Archives as identified groups, have been maintained as such. The papers also include printed material from the Canadian Association of Rhodes Scholars and Balliol College.

Fonds consists of a “transit book” – a bound notebook used by Hal Norman for notes and measurements taken during his Surveying course in 1923 – and three maps of UBC’s Fairview and Point Grey campuses, hand-drawn in 1923 and plotted in 1976.

Fonds consists of 370 black and white negatives taken between 1917 and 1924. The images are primarily of UBC students at the University's original Fairview campus. There are also shots of faculty members. As well as posed individual shots of students, there are many photographs of various student activities including the annual class picnic. Although most of the photographs are not identified they are very important for collectively documenting student life at the University in the late teen’s and early 1920s.