Fonds consists of manuscripts, including biographical notes, administrative files and working papers for Beddoe's book 'Our unknown heritage' and articles; subject files on finance, Canadian Legion, Heraldry, Royal Canadian Navy, personal and references; Books of Remembrance relating to World War I and II and Ontario, Perth, South Africa, Korea and Newfoundland; Heraldry Society of Canada files; sketches; clippings; publications; additional papers including personal material; correspondence; finances; subject files; and manuscripts; printed material chiefly related to heraldry; sketches; and oversize material.
Photographic material depicts ships' badges from World War II; production of the Book of Remembrance for World War II; dinner with John Diefenbaker; group portraits of the Ottawa Choral Society, 1898, the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Provincial Model School, Ottawa, Ontario, 1904-1905, and the 7th Officers' Disciplinary Training Class, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1942; portraits of Major Forbes Thrasher, Alan Beddoe, and John W. Kennedy. Other photographic depictions include: the agriculture and food processing industry in Canada; window displays; general views of western cities, mountains, legislative and other public buildings; class photo, Model School, Ottawa, Ontario; photograph of a watercolour entitled "Arms of the University of Windsor" and a photograph of a watercolour entitled "The Bearings Massey College in the University of Toronto" (coat of arms).
Other graphic material consists of 17 drawings attributed to Frederick Horsman Varley which were done for the World Poultry Congress in St. Louis in 1939 or, for the Canadian Department of Agriculture; one drawing by Alan Beddoe entitled The Condemned Bridge. Watercolours depict an assortment of coats of arms including provincial, personal and municipal designs; coats of arms for all provinces and territories, The Right Honourable George P. Vanier, Viscount Monk, Charles Vincent Massey, Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, the Township of Esquimalt (Vancouver Island), the City of Hamilton, Ontario, armorial bearings (by Alan Beddoe) of the Right Hon. Georges P. Vanier, Governor General of Canada 1959-1967.
Also included in this fonds are assorted designs and studies for The Book of Remembrance as well as coats of arms, crests, stamps, money, flags, posters and architecture done by Alan Beddoe, James Purvis, and unknown artists. This fonds also consists of 850 items by Alan Beddoe including slides, colour transparencies, prints, watercolours and drawings related to Canadian heraldry as well as several hundred bookplates and ship's badges designed by Beddoe such as: a colour photograph of the University of Manitoba coat of arms; ship's badge designs for the Kapuskasing, Magnificent, Sioux and Rockcliffe; a colour slide of the Earl of Dufferin's coat of arms; preliminary sketches for the coat of arms of Newfoundland, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Yukon; a black and white photograph of the Letters Patent-The Royal Canadian Geographical Society; book plate designs for Charles Clement Tudway, Henry J. Turner, Edward Milner, and George Stacey Gibson as well as one booklet with pre-Confederation flags and coats of arms.
Fonds also contains documents granting arms to the University of Moncton and the Township of Gloucester; document to Samuel F. Thompson of Cork, presenting to Canada, the Queen's Scarf of Honour, awarded to his uncle Private Richard Rowland Thompson and signed by Georges P. Vanier; letters patent granting arms to the Royal Society of Canada.
This fonds also contains 88 drawings, 30 watercolours, 9 letter presses and 1 print as yet undescribed that deal primarily with designs for coat of arms of various institutions, people, Canadian provinces and territories.
