The fonds consists of Cyril Belshaw's personal and professional papers. The professional records chronicle both his involvement in numerous local, national, and international organizations (including the Academic Board for Higher Education in British Columbia, the Regional Training Centre for United Nations Fellows, the Social Science Research Council of Canada, the Pacific Sciences Association, UNESCO, and the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association), and his teaching and administrative activities at UBC. The records also include his original research material and data into various groups in the South Pacific, and other topics in anthropology. More personal records related to his education and family. Also included are materials about the disappearance and subsequent inquiry into the death of Betty Joy Belshaw. The materials include meeting minutes, course materials, publications, manuscripts, research journals, personal diaries and agendas, financial statements, press clippings, photographs, maps and audio-visual materials.

Fonds contains five series: Correspondence, Notes, and Reports (1947-1976); Indigenous Peoples of BC Research (1954-1967); Doukhobors (1948-1954); Northern Development Research (1972); Harry Hawthorn Project (19--); and Audio (1971) series.

The collection consists of materials acquired or collected by Elmer K. Nelson, primarily relating to the UBC criminology programme and his work for the B.C. Office of Corrections. It includes biographical information (1954-2007), correspondence (1952-1987), newspaper clippings (1952-1957), and publications (1953-1957). Also included is an audio cassette recording (catalogue # UBC 3415) of an interview with Nelson. Corrections Branch History Committee, dated 1978. Additionally, a copy of an article written by Gary Parkinson in 2007, "Recovering the early history of Canadian criminology: Criminology at the University of British Columbia, 1951 to 1959", is included at the request of the collector.