Fonds consists of records relating to Birnie's trip to China in the 60s and her career as a journalist, including correspondence, telegrams, photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, photocopied news articles, scrapbooks, and awards.
The fonds consists mainly of textual materials, including correspondence and diaries. Also present are photo albums, photographs and negatives. The fonds has been arranged into the following seven series: Personal correspondence (1934-1988), Diaries (1914-1973), Desktop diaries (1962-1973), Personal miscellaneous items (1937-1978), Photographs (1927-2002), and Outlawry of War (1921-1960).