Fonds consists of correspondence, financial records, diaries, travel diaries, calendars, sketch books, sketches and drawings, programmes and invitations pertaining to shows and exhibitions, inventories, speeches, awards, miscellaneous and printed material, photographs, slides and sound recordings covering all aspects of his life as a student, teacher, traveller, world-renowned artist and chronicler of the country he loved. There is also a small amount of material created and maintained by Ruth Collier (nee Brown) and some family genealogy files.

Fonds consists of correspondence, diaries, general remark book, H.M.S. Algerine, China Station, 1899; minute and letter book of Commander in Chief, East Indies, 1909 Mar. 3, lectures at Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and papers written by Slade for Submission to the First Lord.

Fonds consists of correspondence, articles, diaries, subject files, news clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, manuscript notes, notebooks, cartoons, watercolours, and medals. Adam Shortt's involvement with Queen's University, his work as Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, his work as first Chairman of the Board of Historical Publications of the Public Archives, his active career as a public speaker, and his creative output are all reflected in the papers. There is also a large series of autographs that Shortt collected over the course of his life.