Fonds consists of 20 series of textual records, 1832-1986, including Subject Files series, Personal Papers series, and Printed Material series, as well as two series of Additional Papers. The Subject Files contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, manuscripts, notes, clippings, pamphlets and other material relating to Scott's career as university professor, poet and political activist; there are also C.C.F. and N.D.P. subject files. The Personal Papers include family material, documentation relating to Scott's youth and education, early correspondence, correspondence between Scott and Marian Dale Scott, diaries, notebooks, income tax returns, honorary degrees and certificates; posthumous material includes letters of condolence to Marian Scott. The Printed Material includes pamphlets, articles and scrapbooks. The Additional Papers include correspondence and manuscripts by Scott; the Additional Papers Series II include subject files, personal papers and printed material.
Fonds also contains a microfilm copy of scrapbooks, 1924 to 1974, compiled by Francis Reginald Scott, microfilm reels M-3733 and M-3734.
Fonds also contains photographic materials. 2,330 photographs, ca. 1865-1983, include portraits and snapshots, and document the life and career of F.R. Scott as poet, teacher, constitutional lawyer and political activist, in Montreal and North Hatley, Quebec; travels of F.R. Scott in Canada, the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia; activities of friends of F.R. Scott: Patrick Anderson, P.K. Page, Louis Dudek, John Glassco, Doug Jones, Ron Sutherland, Neufville Shaw, Ralph Gustafson, A.J.M. Smith, George Johnson, Anne Hébert, Irving Layton, Hans Selye, Leon Edel, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, George Whalley, Earle Birney, Fred Cogswell, Al Purdy, George Woodcock; group photograph of delegates attending the founding convention of the New Party, Ottawa, Ontario, August 1961. 32 photographs (b&w), 1910-1955, depict a C.C.F. banquet, Montreal, Quebec, 1943; Phyllis Webb, Morley Callaghan, Anne Wilkinson, and F.R. Scott, attending Canadian Writers' Conference, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; with A.M. (Sandy) Nicholson, of the C.C.F., 1947; portrait of Florian Fortin, ca. 1941; public housing projects in the U.S.A., ca. 1939; Irving and Betty Layton, Scott, Ari Boxer, Eli Mandel, P. Webb, Louis Dudek, at Layton's home; family members; photographs by Gail Turnball. 14 photographs, 1926-1952, depict F.R. Scott at the Couchiching Institute, 1934; F.R. Scott at a reception for United Nations personnel, Burma, 1952; F.R. Scott's room, Montreal, Quebec, 1926; Peter Scott, ca. July 1932. 71 photographs, 1960-1980, are personal snapshots of F.R. Scott and literary friends inlcuding Ralph Gustafson, Eli Mandel, Irving Layton, Michael Ondaatje, Al Purdy, Louis Dudek and others; convocations, honorary degrees at McGill, Simon Fraser, Dalhousie University; with photographs by Chris F. Payne, Arnott Rogers Batten, Studio Eclair. 143 photographics, 1967-1978, predominant 1976-1978, depicts F.R. Scott at his camp on Lake Massawippi, Quebec, and at his house in North Hatley, Quebec, with Marian Scott, and Raleigh and Louise Parkin also appearing; photographed by Scott family friend, Lois Lord.
Fonds also consists of sound recordings of F.R. Scott interviews, such as one for the CBC series Distinguished Canadians, poetry readings by Scott and other poets, various radio programs and a recording of an oral correspondence to Scott. Also included is a video recording of a TV Ontario production on Scott.
Fonds also contains graphic materials and objects. Included are four drawings, a photograph, a photostat and a watercolour, 1935-1954; a comic drawing of F.R. Scott by Arthur Lismer; a design for book jacket at "Social Planning in Canada" by Maria Dale Scott; designs for the cover of the book Housing Canadians; a photograph of a cartoon entitled The amendment of the B.N.A. Act ... as it seems to Québec; a poster by M.B. entitled Three Canadian reservations. Ten drawings and one plaque, ca. 1940-1964, predominant ca. 1950-1960, relate to F.R. Scott's career at McGill University, including seven Arthur Lismer caricatures, a drawing, a portrait of F.R. Scott by Edith Simon, a portrait of Irving Layton by Betsy Sutherland, and one silver plaque presented to Scott by the Graduate Society of McGill University in 1964. Three drawings, 1954-1962, consist of two works by Arthur Lismer, entitled F.H. Varley getting his honourary degree at Manitoba, and A Montreal half-nude; the third, by Marian Scott, is a cover design for a book of F.R. Scott's poetry.
