The series comprises photographs documenting the lives and work of Henry Burton Sharman and his wife Abbie Lyon Sharman. It includes portraits of the Sharmans, photographs of various family groups, participants in religious seminars, the Sharmans in China, their residences in Canada and the United States, and photographs of railway equipment and machinery relating to the Ontario Metal Culvert Company (later called the Canada Ingot Iron Company). The above material is divided into eleven files: Pendle Hill (Pennsylvania); Portraits of Abbie Lyon Sharman; Early Years of Henry Burton Sharman; Henry and Abbie Sharman (1937-1950); Sierra Seminar; Camp Minnesing (Algonquin Park, Ontario); Early Student Conferences; Sharman home at Queen's Park, Toronto (1921-1922); House in China, Yenching University, Peking (Beijing); McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario; and the Ontario Metal Culvert Company, Guelph, Ontario. Some of the photographers include W. J. Becker & Co., Ashley & Crippen, Gauvin & Gentzel Co., and Dawson, among other unidentified photographers.
The series also holds photographs of the family of Earl and Katherine Willmott; Henry B. Sharman's class at the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Ontario; students receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at University of Toronto, 1891; missionaries in China, 1932; the Yenching University Chorus, Peking, China; views in China taken in the 1920s; Bon Echo and Lake Mazinaw, Ontario; the YWCA student conference at Asilomar, California, 1928; and views of western Canada, including Winnipeg, Lower Fort Garry, Selkirk, Edmonton, Jasper, Banff, Lake of the Woods, and the Canadian Women's Press Club excursion, Mile 49, 1913. There are photographs by William James Topley, S. J. Dixon, Tracy Webb, Marshall Photo, and Henry Burton Sharman.
