Fonds consists of the personal papers of John Norris, including family papers, correspondence of both a personal and professional nature, notes of academic articles, lecture and class notes, as well as several photographs of Norris and his family. Fonds has been organized into seven series: Correspondence series; Family series; Political Career series; Hannah Institute series, Research Materials and Publications series; Teaching series; and Photographs series. Materials are arranged in alphabetical order unless otherwise indicated.

The fonds consist of correspondence from 1935-1994; research from 1942-1987; published material from 1905-1996; oral history from 1983-1987; newspaper clippings from 1964-1994; and photographs from 1923-1985.

The fonds consists of minutes, reports, correspondence and published material generated by various organizations with which Conway has been associated. Records represented in the papers include Student Christian Movement (1956-2013), World University Service of Canada (1957-2009), United Nations Association (1959-1990), Canadian Council for International Cooperation (1967-1978), Canadian University Service Overseas (1961- 1991), Vancouver Refugee Council (1985-1989), Canadian Institute of International Affairs (1971-78, 1987-2000), Tibetan Refugee Aid Society (1985-1989), and Canadian Cross Roads International (1966-1990), among others. Other administrative records include material from the Faculty of Arts (1968-1991) and the Department of History (1958-2009). The papers include documents from the William G. Murrin Fund Committee (1979-1993), allocating funding to religious organizations at UBC. John Conway's professional correspondence (1963-2016) is also included.