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This series consists of correspondence relating to interviews given on radio and television, along with one photograph.

Professor Bliss wrote over 11 scholarly books, edited or wrote a half dozen book texts and editions, penned over 80 scholarly articles and chapters of books, three major and numerous minor book reviews in scholarly journals, and about 500 articles and book reviews in Canadian newspapers and magazines. He also wrote, partly to hone his writing skills and to amuse his family and members of the Arts and Letters Club, short stories, plays and skits that were not published, though material from the family-oriented pieces were used in his autobiography, Writing history: a professor’s life. This series contains much of the unpublished material mentioned above, and published books and articles from about 1990, along with associated correspondence, drafts, book reviews and related material. Many of his early published writings can be found in earlier accessions. Drafts of his books on Frederick Banting and the discovery of insulin have been deposited in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in the Thomas Fisher Library. The articles focus on his thoughts on insulin, Banting, the history of medicine, health care generally, and on aspects of Professor Bliss’ last four books, William Osler: a life in medicine (1999), Harvey Cushing: a life in surgery (2005); and The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning points in the treatment of disease and his autobiography, both published in 2011.

Digital files include drafts of his writings for newspapers and magazines; draft of a play about Frederick Banting; writings for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography; a commemorative book about the 50th anniversary of the Order of Canada; a book about Lucy Palmer of Hazeldean, Prince Edward Island; and the foreword to a new Volume I of The Journals of L.M. Montgomery (2012).

This series contains files on individuals that Professor Bliss was interested in historically, such as Sir Albert Edward Kemp, businessman and politician, and men about whom he wrote biographies, including Sir Joseph Flavelle and Sir Frederick Banting, but particularly on the research that he undertook for his biographies of Sir William Osler, William Osler: A life in medicine (1999), and Harvey Cushing, Harvey Cushing: A life in surgery (2005).

While most of Professor Bliss’ research files and drafts of his manuscripts for The Discovery of Insulin and Banting: A Biography are held in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, this series contains extensive notes he took while researching those books and associated articles, along with some correspondence and a partial draft of one of the chapters in the insulin volume.

Regarding Sir William Osler, only selected research files have been retained. The files kept have one or more of the following: extensive notes on the folders themselves; significant marginalia or highlighting of articles and correspondence by Osler; and original material such correspondence, offprints of articles, drafts of addresses, and papers written by others about Osler’s life and career. The first part of this series has files arranged chronologically by the particular year of Osler’s life; they are followed by other files by name of person or organization and arranged almost entirely in the order kept by Professor Bliss. Following the files on Osler are Professor Bliss’ research files on Harvey Cushing. The same policy as for Osler regarding retention and arrangement has been followed, and the range of material in the files is similar.

Box 002P: Canadian History Slide collection: 12 double-trays of slides containing 1,216 black-and-white and colour illustrations relating to the widest possible number of subjects in Canadian history. Printed list of the contents. [includes double tray of slides (#501-600) removed from box 012 – note by Harold Averill].

Box 003P: Smallpox slide collection: Two double-trays containing 93 slides of illustrations relating to the Montreal smallpox epidemic of 1885; compiled to illustrate Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal. Printed list of slides. (Some, but not all of these slides were made from prints in the folder in Box 24)

Prints, negatives, relating to themes in Canadian business history – and general history. 3 folders, approx 300 pictures. Most of these were accumulated as possible illustrations for Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business; most came from collections I had access to as described above. Some of the best of the prints were made into slides, as above; but not all.

Note from Bliss: "About 1972 I began making typed appraisals of essays, with carbons. Thus I had a copy for reference, which was particularly useful in commenting on second essays. My filing of these, as well as general letters of evaluation, has always been erratic and inconsistent. Often I did not keep copies of letters of evaluation - I've written thousands of them, it seems"

This series consists largely of material (correspondence, notices, programs, and newsletters) relating to the activities of the American Osler Society for most of the years from 1994 to 2012. These files contain the annual general meeting programs; a range of associated notices, minutes, committee reports, financial statements, and social event material; precis of papers delivered and the texts of a couple of addresses by Professor Bliss who was president of the Society for 2010-2011. Accompanying these files are a number of articles on Sir William Osler; copies of the Oslerian, the Society’s newsletter; the membership directory for 2011; and some copies of the John P. McGovern Award Lectureship, including the address delivered by C. David Naylor in 2012. Precis of addresses Professor Bliss gave at these meetings are included in the programs. The remaining substantial file in this series documents Professor Bliss’ four-years (2012-2016) on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of History.

Digital files document Bliss’ role on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of History and include meeting agendas, minutes, and reports; his role as a Board member of Associated Medical Services (2008-2009); and his membership and participation in activities of the American Osler Society.

This series documents some of Professor Bliss’ consulting activities, primarily regarding editorial issues and legal cases. Digital files include transcripts and notes related to a video project of interviews of leaders in academic medicine and biomedical research conducted by Bliss on behalf of the Friends of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Interviewees include: Dr. John Evans, Dr. Phil Gold, Dr. Arnold Naimark, Dr. Brenda Milner, Dr. Fraser Mustard, Dr. Allan Ronald, Dr. Charles Scriver, Dr. Calvin Stiller, and Dr. James Till.

Also included is an opinion brief about the dissolution of Parliament for the Prime Minister’s Office (2008), and files relating to Bliss’ consultancy on the documentary project Clergue’s Phoenix.

This series contains correspondence and associated material documenting Professor Bliss’ relationship with the University of Toronto, including his initial employment and retirement. Of particular interest is a file from the early 1980s of letters documenting his discontent with the University administration and on the controversial Back Campus Fields project, related to the Pan American Games in 2015. The latter demonstrates that in retirement Professor Bliss’ critical eye on University policy had not diminished. The Massey College memorabilia covers the years (1994-2005) of his membership on the Massey Corporation as a Senior Fellow.

Digital files consist of course syllabi and lecture notes, and some humorous writings related to his membership at Massey College.

This series consists of additional correspondence files up to 2017. Digital files consist of comment’s on a draft of Michael Marrus’ memoirs, correspondence about the documentary Plague, and a folder of letters of recommendations and appraisals of colleagues.

Includes files related to the publication of "Canada's Illustrated History".

Note from Bliss: "This was a 16- volume illustrated history of Canada, published between 1974 and 1977 by a subsidiary of McClelland & Stewart, on which I was historical consultant. Folders 06-25 contain appraisals, correspondence, evaluations, annotated chapters, et cetera, relating to the books in the series. Some files are listed by the book's author, others by the decade covered. The most noteworthy book in the series is probably that written by Margaret Atwood on the period from 1820-1840, the book of hers that has been least noticed. Folders 9 and 10 contain my appraisals of her work and comments on her manuscript."

Note from Bliss: "These files include extensive correspondence with my mother; some correspondence with my brother, J.Q. Bliss, who died in 1969; much correspondence regarding my young brother, R.Q. Bliss; letters from members of Elizabeth Bliss's family; and the beginnings of correspondence with our children."

Professor Bliss describes his scrapbook project in this way: “In 1983 I began keeping a "scrapbook" folder, in which I deposited copies of all my newspaper and magazine articles, reviews of my books, programmes of meetings, invitations, tickets, and other personal and family memorabilia. A few years later I employed daughter Laura to do occasional secretarial work for me, and she became the keeper and organizer of the scrapbook file into formal scrapbooks, ten of which were filled. After Laura moved away, my secretary, Andrea Clarke, kept scrapbook folders, the results of which are in my 2006 Donation [B2006-0015]. I also kept a personal scrapbook file, which, after retirement from the university in 2006, became my only scrapbook file.”

From 1994 on, the “scrapbooks” consist of loose material of the same type of as in the previous volumes, only now the storage medium is archival folders.

Family correspondence, 1976-1982 and a file of documents regarding the estate of Anne L. Bliss.

The addresses in this series are largely related to the several individuals and subjects that Professor Bliss had been thinking and writing about for many years: insulin, Sir Frederick Banting, the history of medicine especially as reflected in his biographies of Sir William Osler and Harvey Cushing, and healthcare generally. Addresses are present in the files unless otherwise indicated, ie., only correspondence, programs, photographs, etc. are noted.

Digital files include texts and slides (PowerPoint files) for talks given by Bliss, organized by topic or by address.

Note from Bliss: "These files consist of all my incoming and most of my outgoing correspondence for the last 22 years of my career at the University of Toronto. Most of it is filed in rough chronological order, though sometimes there are indexes. I am not consistent about back-to-front or front-to-back filing. Some of my correspondence is filed according to specific subjects. Particularly specialized correspondence, such as student reference letters, is in other series. My filing systems were always fairly ad hoc, and especially in the 1980s everything tended to be thrown into the general correspondence files, as it came in, everything lumped together, including much family material that should be in the files in series 2. Major changes in my system occurred late in 1986 when I first began using a computer for my correspondence, and again in 1995 when I moved to 88 College and had the help of a secretary, Andrea Clark. Generally these files contain material of every kind relating to a busy family, writing, and professional life."

Note from Bliss: "These files consist of virtually all of my ingoing and outgoing correspondence, beginning in the summer of 1967 when we moved to Harvard to be Claude Bissell's Teaching Assistant during his tenure as Mackenzie King professor of Canadian Studies there. The normal organization is simply by date - but my filing system has never been meticulous and many letters may be out of order [users are welcome to straighten them out by date], or may have slipped into other files in the collection. Some correspondence with particular colleagues and/or friends has been filed separately for some years. Some important letters or exchanges have been given separate files. The correspondence is highly professionel - with a wide range of Canadian historians and covering everything of interest to young historians - and also personal, containing correspondence with family friends and students, political letters [I was extremely upset about the Vietnam War, and wrote to various political figures] and many others.

The files relating to my editorship of the Social History of Canada series bet ween 1971 and 1976 could have been put in Series 3, but are included in this series because so many of the letters contain material of more general interest. As well, quite a bit of Social History material found its way into the general files, so they also go together for user convenience."

This series begins with files on Professor Bliss’ family background in the Bliss and, particularly, the Crow (Crowe) family, and his early correspondence with his future wife, Elizabeth (Liz) Haslam. Some of the early family material belonged to his mother, Anne Lavelle Crow, including correspondence, diaries, her marriage to Quartus Bliss, and a few of her short stories and speeches, and a family photograph. These files are followed by ones on Professor Bliss’ education, a selection of personal and family photographs, and early letters with members of his family and with Elizabeth Haslam before their marriage. Later in life, when Professor Bliss took up running to improve his physical fitness, he kept a series of journals and photographs documenting his progress. One of Professor Bliss’ daybooks (for 2002) is also present, along with files on honours bestowed on him. Also present are a few examples of political memorabilia (C. D. Howe, Joe Clarke).

Digital files include digital photographs of Bliss’ induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2016 and files related to honorary degrees (citations, addresses).