The series consists of material relating to Irene Spry's two major books on the John Palliser expedition which explored western Canada between 1857 and 1860, "The Palliser Expedition" (Toronto: Macmillan, 1963) and "The Papers of the Palliser Expedition" (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1968). It also includes files relating to her general Palliser research from the late 1950s to the 1980s. For "The Palliser Expedition", there is editorial correspondence with John Gray and Lovat Dickson of Macmillan Company, files on maps and illustrations, reader mail and comments, book reviews, documents relating to the 1995 reprint by Fifth House Publishing, and annotated copies of the book. "The Palliser Papers" material includes drafts and manuscripts, editorial correspondence with Morris Zaslow and W. Kaye Lamb of the Champlain Society, and reviews and comments.
The general files document her research methodology and exhaustive search for primary sources in Great Britain, Ireland, North America and around the world. The "sources" files are organized nominally by correspondent; the "dramatis personae" files are organized nominally by the key players in the Palliser story; and the "archives and libraries" are organized by institution. Some other blocks of records include places, friends and relatives, chronology, and assessment of Palliser's report. More specifically, these research files hold detailed correspondence with archives and other institutions holding Palliser papers and with the descendants of expedition members and others involved in an effort to uncover privately-held historical documents. As a result, the series contains some original documents from the Palliser period and photocopies of other documents still in private hands. For example, she obtained from descendants material belonging to John Palliser's grandfather, dating from 1795 to 1822, including a plan of the deer park at Derryluskan House, Ireland, and also acquired photocopies of the diary of the artist Mary Severn from the 1840s and 1850s.
