The Jim Hamm Documentary Film Collection consists of materials relating to three of his documentary films: "The Air We Breathe" (1996), "Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1997) and "Turning Down the Heat" (1999). "The Air We Breathe" was a co-production of Jim Hamm and the National Film Board. It is an examination of the problem of smog in relation to political decisions, dependency on automobiles, and social-cultural forces. Hamm acted as co-producer, script writer and director. The film was broadcast on the CBC, WTN, SCN, Knowledge Network and Access Alberta. "Between the Rock and a Hard Place" was produced in association with CBC Newsworld. It is the story of Newfoundlanders who leave their home province after the collapse of the cod fishery, ironically finding work in the exploit of another natural resource in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. The film was aired on CBC Newsworld and on CBC Newfoundland. "Turning Down the Heat" was co-produced with the National Film Board in association with CBCs program "The Nature of Things," narrated by David Suzuki. The film showcases viable solutions to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Hamm acted as director, co-producer and co-script writer. The film was aired on "The Nature of Things," and has other screenings nationally and internationally. Storage issues dictate that the textual materials relating to these films and the audio visual materials be separated, so the fonds therefore contains the series: "The Air We Breathe" Textual Materials series, "Turning Down the Heat" Textual Materials series, "Between the Rock and a Hard Place" Textual Materials series, "Turning Down the Heat" Audio/visual Materials series, "The Air We Breathe" Audio/visual Materials series, and "Between the Rock and a Hard Place" Audio/visual Materials series. The largest division of the collection is the audio/visual materials.

The fonds consists of original as well as published maps pertaining to B.C. geology used by Hall.

The fonds consists of correspondence pertaining to the building of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company in Keewatin, Ontario (1887-1889) and three school exercise books belonging to John Mather (1837 and 1838).

The fonds consists of materials pertaining to Stanton's career as a lawyer representing a broad spectrum of industrial unions such as the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Canada), International Woodworkers of America and the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union as well as individual cases relating to the workplace. There are also articles relating to the foundation and activities of various unions, the ILWU in particular, as well as copies of union constitutions and by-laws. There are case records of the ILWU vs. Nissho and Pacific Coast Hydrocarbons, and correspondence pertaining to Harold Pritchett, in particular dealing with his entry into the United States and documents relating to the "Greenhill Park" disaster of 1945. There are also files created by Stanton in representing his clients that formed the basis for his published autobiography "Never Say Die".

Personal and professional records of Kustaa Adolf Ketola, including personal documents, correspondence, International Woodworkers of America pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines. The personal documents include his passport and his military service pass. Correspondence consists of Christmas postcards from his family in Finland and letters from his sisters, friends, and family friends describing their lives in Finland, which provides context about the impact that World War II had upon Finland and Finnish migrants to Canada. I.W.A. pamphlets describe the values, goals, and struggles of union workers in 1940s North America. Fonds also contains small pocket calendars or planners written in Finnish and denoting important holidays, metric conversions, and information about the United States.

The Lumber Inspectors' Union fonds' consists of records necessary for the union to carry out its everyday operations, such as office files, minutes, financial records, correspondence etc. It also includes papers directly relating to the position of the financial secretary. Record types include correspondence, minutes of meetings, agreements, booklets, policies, reports, constitutions, information on other unions , booklets, financial and operating statements, ledgers, particulars on union members, manuals, arbitration cases, and reference material. The bulk of the records fall in the active period of the Union, which was between 1945 and 1980 ; a few records dealing with winding up the Union were also created in 1981 . The fonds has nine series: Operational files ; Minute books ; Financial records ; Financial ledgers ; Application, dues payment, and transfer records ; Arbitration cases reference files ; Register of attendance at meetings ; General information binder; and General reference material . The fonds also contains the Financial Secretary's sous-fonds, which has five series.

The records in the MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. fonds span from 1866 to 2002. They represent the records of the three major predecessor companies, - Powell River Company; Bloedel, Stewart & Welch; and H.R. MacMillan Export - as well as records of the amalgamated corporations - MacMillan& Bloedel; MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell River; and MacMillan Bloedel Limited. Each of the original predecessor companies had a distinctive function, Powell River Company was a pulp and paper operation focused on the manufacturing of newsprint paper; Bloedel, Stewart, and Welch was a logging company whose main activities included acquiring timber lands and harvesting timber; H.R. MacMillan Export was a lumber trade and export company. When H.R. MacMillan Export and Bloedel, Stewart, and Welch joined in 1956 to form MacMillan and Bloedel Ltd., and then when Powell River Company joined in 1960, the resultant records of these amalgamations reflected all of the previously separated functions, and evidence the vertical integration of MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.

Records subjects include all aspects of the private Forestry industry, including: acquisition of title, licences, and leases to land, timber, and water rights; mapping, inventorying and cruising forests; building and maintaining access to timber resources via land and water; methods of harvesting timber, disposing of slash, and reforesting previously forested areas; methods of processing timber to make lumber and wood products, including pulp and paper; studies and reports on wood products ,the lumber trade and national and global markets; management of personnel and relations with labour unions; acquisitions of companies in allied industries; marketing of wood products; and responding to shifts in economy, public perception, British Columbian government legislation and industry regulations, and the legal recognition of the land and water rights of First Nations.

The records primarily relate to and originate from British Columbia, though some records are directly related to the creators’ relationships with, forestry operations on, and concerns in other nations and regions including; Florida and Alabama in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and China, Southeast Asia and South America.

Records in the fonds have been divided into six separate sous-fonds to reflect the corporate body they originated from: MacMillan Bloedel Limited sous-fonds, Powell River Company sous-fonds, H.R. MacMillan Export sous-fonds, Bloedel, Stewart, and Welch sous-fonds, MacMillan and Bloedel sous-fonds, and MacMillan, Bloedel, and Powell River sous-fonds.

Within each of these sous-fonds records are further arranged into series, subseries, and in some cases sub-sub series to reflect the creating body and specific record type.

Record types consist of a wide variety of textual records including correspondence, meeting minutes, annual reports, ledgers, studies, tax records and workers’ compensation records, timber cruise reports, marketing materials, manuals, transcripts of narrative histories, financial records, news clippings, daily journals, receipts, contracts, and more. Non-textual records include individual photographs and photograph albums documenting individuals and business processes in the Forestry industry, as well as over 1,000 maps, primarily of British Columbia, and audiotapes, sound-recordings, films, ephemera and artefacts.

The fonds consists of records of the Personnel, Safety, and Physical Plant and Maintenance departments of the Canadian White Pine Division of MacMillan Bloedel Limited, as well as some records of the Division's Manager and other divisions. The fonds includes administrative, personnel, project, and subject files containing correspondence, memoranda, reports, statistics, financial records, statements, organizational charts, brochures, newsletters, and other records. The fonds also includes many plans, photographs and slides and some artifacts. It has been arranged into the following series: Personnel Department records (1923-1997, predominantly 1941-1989); Records of the Manager (1938-1946, 1968-1974); Safety Department records (1938-1978, predominantly 1952-1976); Physical Plant and Maintenance Department records (1920-1998, predominantly 1946-1982); and general photographs (1940-1981).

The fonds consists of minutes for the Boilermakers' and Iron Shipbuilders' Union of Canada, Local No. 1 (1943-45) and Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union, Local No. 1 (1945-77), general correspondence (1956-68), membership correspondence (1960-68), Workmen's Compensation records (1956-75), photographs, transcripts of interviews with pioneer members of the Union, printed material, and draft manuscript for "A History of Shipbuilding in British Columbia".

The collection consists of photocopied correspondence, class lists and course outlines from the Northern Workers' Education Association and the University of Sudbury Extension Department, and photographs and interviews with Western Canadian leaders of the IUMMSW. The material was used in the preparation of his 1985 history of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Canada). Fonds includes sound cassettes of interviews regarding union history.

The fonds consists of blueprints, line drawings and sketches and includes a sketch of the "iron chink" dated 1904.

The fonds consists of minutes of Council No. 7 (1902-1921, 1938-1951), minutes of Council No. 4 (n.d.), financial records, agreements, membership and attendance records, towboat grievances, printed material, credit union material, all relating to the NAME. Also included are Ladies' Auxiliary records and L.H. Charlton's correspondence.

The fonds consists of minute books for Carpenters' Locals 1735 (1922-1977) and 1081 (1953-1972) and the Piledrivers' Local 1549 (1944-1954). The fonds also includes correspondence, subject files, collective agreements and financial records from the union offices in Prince Rupert and Kitimat/Terrace.

The fonds consists of general correspondence (1911-1963) with major correspondents such as William B. Burnett (1927-1963), J.R.V. Dunlop (1927-1955) and Fred M. Wells (1927-1941). It also includes Solibakke's daily diary (1934-1962), and family records, printed and published material relating to the mining industry, clippings files and photographs. Corporate material includes records from Cariboo Quartz Mining Company (1927-1961), Cariboo Amalgamated Gold Mining Company (1933-1939), Pine Grove Placers Ltd. (1935-1940) and Cariboo-Hudson Gold Mines Ltd. (1936-1941). Fonds includes maps of mines and topography, mostly in the Cariboo region of B.C.

The fonds consists of a B.C. Forest Branch report (1913) and photographs and maps relating to the development of Kitimat as part of the Alcan, B.C. Project.

Fonds consists mostly of cartographic materials relating to reconnaissance trips taken by R.C. Harris. The maps are both historic and those drawn up by Harris for his trips, incorporating old trails on current maps. While the inclusive dates of the map collection are from 1835 - 1981, the majority of these maps were created from 1880 -1930. They are organized according to a personal classification system maintained by R.C. Harris. The remainder of the fonds consists of surveys, plans, photos, correspondence, topographical notes, magazine and newspaper clippings, Harris research notes, books, reports, brochures, photocopies, and book reviews.

The fonds consists of company minutes (1924-1963), repair orders (1927-1959), annual reports, working plans and drawings for various pieces of machinery and machine parts.

The fonds consists of personal materials including biographical information, correspondence (1905-1944), financial records (1892-1930), speeches, clippings and memorabilia relating to Canadiana and mining in British Columbia. Also included are collected historical items, most prominent amongst which are research materials relating to Alfred Waddington (1858-1872). The fonds also includes various collected historical items (1754-1889) and photographs of the E. Moss family, Esquimalt scenery and buildings, scenes of Nelson and Ymir mining, and Cape Breton scenery.

Fonds consists of 947 letters, bills of exchange, and telegrams sent from Victoria-area merchants to Royal Fisk, a forwarding and shipping agent in San Francisco, during the Cariboo Gold Rush. Letters provide insight into the effect of the Cariboo Gold Rush on trade and commerce in Victoria at the time. Topics covered in the letters include ordering goods; remitting cash, gold and drafts; advising of market prices; conditions in the mines of Victoria and Puget Sound; providing news of latest gold discoveries, shipping activity, finances, and mergers or dissolutions; business alliances; establishing express services; arrival of the first telegraph; et al.

The fonds consists of records of the Vancouver Hoo-Hoo Club No. 48 and the International Concatenated Order of the Hoo-Hoo and the records of Scott's participation in these organizations. It includes correspondence, financial records, minutes, photographs, printed material and related material. In addition, Scott compiled notes and lists on lumber retailers, wholesalers, forestry manufacturing units, and lumber exporters as well as a collection of rules for the grading and dressing of lumber, 1922-1970.

The collection consists of records relating to logging and the forest industry including health and safety and long-term disability information for the International Woodworkers of America (IWA), Forest Industrial Relations correspondence (1981-1983), information on scaling, wage scales, one map, and six photographs (1933-34) of Caterpiller Diesel Seventy-Five.

The fonds consists of corporate records, a research collection of Seaboard historical material used in the preparation of a corporate history, John A. Humbird's journals of his overseas trips for Seaboard (1937-1945) and photographs of Seaboard personnel, delegations, ships, ports, logging operations, and sawmills.