The Quinn collection was gathered by Herbert Furlong Quinn between the 1930s and 1970s to support his research of political sciences.
The collection mainly presents a dozen Canadian political parties as well as several foreign parties using brochures and political newspapers covering the period from the 1930s to the early 1980s. The Canadian political parties represented are the Parti libéral du Québec, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party, the Progressive Labor Union, the Commonwealth Co-operative Federation, the Progressive Conservative Party, the Confederation of Catholic Workers in Canada, the National Union, the Social Credit Party of Canada, the Bloc Populaire, the Canadian Student Assembly, among others. The foreign parties covered by the collection are mainly the German Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU / CSU), but also the Socialist Workers' Party of America and the League for Industrial Democracy as well as the Republicans and Democrats during the American presidential campaign of 1964. In addition, the collection includes several years of the "Bulletin" (English version), published by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as brochures of the Portuguese government of the 1930s.
The collection also includes complementary material: First, there are articles and publications written by Herbert F. Quinn on multiple political subjects, including a manuscript of the book "L'Union nationale: le nationalisme québécois de Duplessis à Lévesque", published in 1979. Second, there is a selection of Canadian newspapers and clippings, covering the 1949 Canadian federal election campaign on the one hand, and the fascist movement around the world during the 1930s on the other.
Finally, the collection includes court transcripts relating to the occupation of the Sir George Williams University Computer Center in 1969, known as the Sir George Williams Affair.

The Quinn collection contains pamphlets, brochures, statements, newsletters, addresses, policy statements, transcripts, manifests, newspapers and newspaper clippings. An index of brochures is available.

The collection is organized in the following series:

C001/A Political Pamphlet Collection
C001/B Politics in the Media
C001/C Publications by Herbert F. Quinn
C001/D Sir George Williams Affair