The fonds consists of seven accruals which have been combined. The first two accruals are arranged into 15 series consisting of incoming correspondence, outgoing correspondence, Cambridge Magazine correspondence and related material, Heretics correspondence and related material, Orthological Institute and Basic English Foundation correspondence and financial material, other Basic English material, manuscripts, diaries and notebooks, articles and publications relating to Ogden and Basic English, photographic and family material, publications received, notes and catalogues relating to Ogden's book and stamp collection, pictorial material and gramophone records, Cambridge Magazine issues and Psyche photocopies.

The third accrual (01-1993) consists of two letters from Siegfried Sassoon. The fourth accrual (12-1993) consists of two groups of letters relating to the Heretics Society and the Cambridge Magazine. The fifth accrual (22-1993)consists of Ogden's letters to Valerie Winslow. The sixth (05-1994) accrual consists of financial ledgers concerning the sales of Basic English publications. The seventh accrual (08-1997) consists of a post card from Ivy Litvinoff and a book. These accruals have been interfiled with the first two accruals.

The fonds is very comprehensive and includes: 32 notebooks in which Cockburn composed most of his song lyrics from 1969 to 2002; song sheets and scores; correspondence, including fan mail; awards, including gold records; promotional material, including posters; tour books; scrapbooks; photographs; a copy of each of Cockburn’s recordings; video and film items; and other material.

The fonds consists of Russell's manuscripts, correspondence, library, periodicals, offprints, leaflets, photographs, audio discs, audio reels, audio cassettes, films, videocassettes, microfilms, news clippings, posters, some furniture, artwork (including a bust by Jacob Epstein), awards and medals. Also included are records of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, including those that relate to the International War Crimes Tribunal. The archive is supplemented by a supporting research library of books, theses about Russell, and his publications in periodicals. The fonds also contains the archives of Russell's parents, Viscount and Viscountess Amberley. The fonds has been supplemented with ongoing acquisitions of original material from a variety of sources, as well as copies of selected material held elsewhere.

There have been two accruals. The first accrual arrived in disarray. The only series containing files in their original order are the Estate Accounting series and 2 files in the Feinberg series. Organization had to be imposed on most other files because file labels bore no relationship to contents and contents were mixed. The fonds has been thus been organized into the following series: Organization of Russell Archives, Preparation of the Catalogue and Its Sales; Sale of the Archives; Sale and Continuing Relationship with McMaster University; Anton Felton Correspondence; Barry Feinberg Correspondence; Russell's Books and Articles; Publishing Projects Involving Other Authors; Film Projects; Legal and Financial; Estate Accounting; Russell Correspondence; Edith Russell Correspondence and Memorandum; Russell Biographical Information, Photograph, Meetings; Printed Materials. The second small accrual consists mainly of legal documents.

Fonds consists of records created or received by Anne Russell, particularly during the period of her secondary education (ca. 1956-1962).