Item consists of an autobigoraphy. Recounts life on a farm in rural Markham during early 20th-century; agriculture, machinery, crops grown, methods of harvesting, etc., is especially well-documented. Also provides insight into rural education, economic relationship between such outlying rural areas and Toronto, collective psyche of rural-agrarian populace, etc.; observations apply to Vaughan Township and other constituent municipalities of York County.

Fonds consists of a family tree that traces the Phillips family back to Jacob Phillips (1794-1879) and Sarah Kaake (1794-1884) and includes the birth, marriage and death dates, occupations, and locations of births, marriages, residences, deaths and internments of the descendants of the Phillips as well as that of those who married into the family. Also includes two pictures, one of Margaret and William Caldwell and the other of Jesse Edgar Phillips and Margaret Josephine Agar. Chronology of Jacob Phillips by Guylaine Petrin also included as well as photocopy of a broadside advertising the auction sale of farm stock of Edgar Phillips in 1949. Also includes David Phillips' 2012 article in Families publication "The Family of Jacob Phillips and Sarah "Sally" Kaake of Etobicoke: An Overview", magazine Families with published article, launch party edition of his article, copy of United Empire Loyalist Association certificate, and a reproduction of a photograph from 1939 depicting Jesse Edgar Phillips and his sons.

Fonds consists of plans, reports, studies, correspondence, published materials, essays, and newspaper clippings which document the planning and development of Vaughan. Specific Vaughan topics within the fonds include the Maple dump, the Maple theme park, the Woodbridge annexation, and the building of the Vaughan industrial park, to name but a few. Moreover, official plans and studies for Thornhill, Maple, Kleinburg, Nashville, and Woodbridge provide invaluable evidence as to the evolutionary development of these communities.

Item consists of a diary. Subjects addressed are Peterson's parish in Vaughan, and the difficulties encountered here as result of machinations of one Michael Keffer, a parishioner.

Collection consists of photographs of students and staff of Langstaff School, 1893 and Concord School, 1924, n.d.; photographs of attendees of Thornhill United Church Sunday School picnic, 1925, Thornhill Girls Hockey Team, 1918, and unidentified family portrait originally owned by the late Mary Jane Weaver. Textual records consist of newspaper clippings documenting aspects of the heritage of Markham, Vaughan and Richmond Hill from the 1970's to 1985, with a particular focus on built heritage.