Series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence created during Ormsby's communications with her mother Margaret, other family members, colleagues, students, publishers, government officials and archival institutions. The series includes several hundred incoming letters to Margaret from her mother. Because Margaret and her mother corresponded very frequently, the correspondence provides a great deal of information about life in Vernon and the Okanagan and things happening at the University of British Columbia. Unfortunately, the bulk of the incoming correspondence is not dated.

Series consists of offprints, essays, articles, and book reviews written by Ormsby for various publications, including historical journals and encyclopedias. Also included are copies of addresses given by Ormsby and drafts of chapters of her books.

Series consists of minutes, agendas, reports and correspondence generated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

The fonds consists of correspondence, drafts, essays, lecture notes, course outlines, clippings and research materials created and collected by Ormsby in her diverse roles as student, professor, researcher and author. Also included are records generated between 1957 and 1967 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Series consists of a transcript of Ormsby's UBC Grades (1930), clippings about her career, printed material documenting various awards she received, clippings she collected and, finally, material generated following her death and added to fonds by her sister Catherine Marcellus in 1999.

Series consists of approximately 349 photographs. Almost 300 appear in an album created with photographs taken during a school trip to Europe from San Francisco in 1938. Many of the remaining photographs show Margaret Ormsby from childhood through her years at UBC and her family and friends. There are also a few photographs of Ormsby later in life.

Series consists of clippings, copies of essays by students and colleagues, photocopies of archival documents, published bibliographies, and lists of completed thesis topics. Also included are notes and transcriptions of records in the holdings of the B.C. Provincial Archives and Records Service. Ormsby created these during the writing of British Columbia: A History in 1957. In addition, some related correspondence is included within the files in this series. The series is organized into four subseries: Clipping, Collected Essays and Resources, Copies of Archival Materials and Notes from BCARS - B.C.: A History.

Series consists of lecture notes, course outlines, biographical sketches, assignments, and related correspondence created by Ormsby as a professor and sessional lecturer at UBC, the University of Toronto, and Western Ontario.