Fonds consists primarily of photographs, films and slides taken and compiled by Allan Edward Cuthbertson and his family.

Fonds includes early portrait photographs consisting of daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes of family members and in-laws. Included is a daguerreotype of James Givens (1784-1846), who was born in Omagh, Ireland, the same town as many of the Cuthbertson family. Givens was an Aide-de-Camp to John Graves Simcoe, Ontario's first Lieutenant Governor, and the Superintendent of the Indian Department of Upper Canada, appointed by Simcoe. James Givens' brother George married the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Cuthbertson, the patriarch of the Cuthbertson family. There is also a daguerreotype of Edward Greer Cuthbertson, the son of the Reverend Samuel Cuthbertson and grandfather of Allan.

The majority of the fonds is comprised of family movies, slides and 11 x 17 photograph albums filled with black and white prints, taken and compiled from the early 1900s until the mid 1940s. Photograph albums follow a chronological order and most of the photographs have captions. Allan Edward Cuthbertson was most often the photographer and the images mainly centre around his immediate family: his parents Frederick Henry Cuthbertson and Mary Ann (Polly) Jackson, his siblings Elaine and Frederick William, and his wife Elma Ferguson and their two children, George and Hugh (Sonny). Family outings and vacations are also captured. The family spent time year-round in the Muskoka region of Ontario, in particular the towns of Bala and Rosseau. There are many images of cottages, canoeing, and natural scenes from here as well as home movies of the scenery of Muskoka, Brantford and Niagara. There is also a series of photographs, lantern and colour slides related to Rotary Club convention trips to the west coast of Canada and the United States and also to the east coast, in particular Atlantic City and New York City. Two trips overseas, in 1911 and 1937, to the United Kingdom and Europe are also documented; the fonds includes images of the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in June 1911 and George VI's Coronation that took place on 12 May 1937. A series of photographs and home movies depict the World’s Fair of 1939 and a western Canada trip in 1940. Negatives exist for some of the photos taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Fonds also includes many photographs and slides documenting accidents and disasters. The Toronto Fire of 1904 is represented in several photographs as is the fire at the Lambton Golf Club in 1919, the Westminster Church fire on January 31, 1920 in Toronto, the Shuttleworth Chemical Company fire, the Forum Building fire, the fire at the Wawa hotel in Muskoka and the Parkdale Canoe Club fire in 1923. There are also several images of accidents including plane crashes, automobile wrecks and train derailments. There are lantern slides from the 1920 Westminster fire as well as moving images of a house fire and of a bridge collapse at Niagara Falls in 1938.

Other events captured by Allan Cuthbertson include images of the crowds gathered after a false report of a signing of Armistice on November 7, 1918, the crowds on Victory Day, November 11, 1918 on Yonge Street, Queen Street and King Street in Toronto and the return of Toronto's 58th Battalion on March 23, 1919. There are images of the Canadian National Exhibition from 1919 until the 1940s, including original negatives of the CNE images from the late 1930s. There are also several photographs of the visits of Theodore Roosevelt to Toronto on November 26, 1917, the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII, to the 1919 Canadian National Exhibition, the visits of the Ontario Premier Ernest Charles Drury and Colonel W.A. "Billy" Bishop, V.C. to the 1920 Canadian National Exhibition and the Royal Visit of George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Toronto and Brantford, Ontario in 1939. Lantern slides from the 1919 Prince of Wales visit and moving images of the 1939 Royal Visit also exist.

The fonds also contains a large number of newspaper clippings that coincide with the events and incidents captured in the photographs. Several of Allan Edward Cuthberston’s photographs were reprinted in newspapers and both forms are shown together in several of the albums.

Other textual materials in the fonds consist of memorabilia collected by Allan including menu cards, ship logs, telegrams and letters. There are also a number of postcards from Europe and Western Canada.

Also contained in the fonds are documentary art items. These include several lithographic prints of pastoral scenes and buildings.

For a more detailed description, use this link to the Archives of Ontario's descriptive database: http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PROV/PROV/REFD+F+4564?SESSIONSEARCH