Material consist of the academic dress worn by Father Edward Leo Hayes when he received an honorary Master of Arts in 1967. also included is the certificate of award and a copy of speech given by the Vice-Chancellor during the award ceremony.

An address delivered to the Toowoomba Historical Society by Br. L.J. Ansell, Toowoomba Diocesan Archivist, [1980?] Apr 21.

Brief biography of Father Edward Leo Hayes.

Press clippings compiled from Fryer Library files and mounted by Len Fisher.
Includes: Priest for all seasons...the life and times of Archdeacon Edward Leo Hayes / by Shirley Bell.

Manuscript book of seventeen illuminated and illustrated poems by Australian authors. Father Leo Hayes commissioned the book of his favourite Australian poems from artist Ella Lilian Pedersen. Hayes wanted it done in the manner of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Each of the 17 poems chosen by Father Hayes has been written in calligraphy with accompanying illustrations depicting the location or subject of each poem. Pedersen crafted a tooled leather binding with ornamentation in pewter studded with semi-precious stones, including opals and agates, collected by Father Hayes when he was parish priest in Crows Nest. The original cover was damaged, and the central panel was replaced in the early 2000s by book restorer Anne Clonnan with one remaining gemstone.

Poems: The first comers there / Margaret Curran. -- Carnarvon deep gorges / Bertha Butler. -- Love in a cottage / Daniel Henry Deniehy. -- The frog pool / James Devaney. -- Toowoomba dark purple / George Essex Evans. -- Where the pelican builds / Mary Hannay Foott. -- The Waradgery tribe / Mary Gilmore. -- Taralga / Mary Gilmore. -- When winter comes to Queensland / Alice Gore-Jones. -- My country / Dorothea Mackellar. -- Colour / Dorothea Mackellar. -- The gentle water bird (for Mary Gilmore) / John Shaw Neilson. -- Old salt / Lydia M. D. O'Neil. -- The way of it / D. L. Waraker. -- In September Queensland Bush / D. L. Waraker. -- Rain magic / Frances Dunn. -- Waratah and wattle / Henry Lawson.

Letter 31 Aug 1948 to E.M. England and family (with continuation dated Dec.): personal news, formation of Anthropological Society at University of Queensland, books and book collecting, Australian painting.

Handwritten letter to Eileen M. Buckley re John Shaw Neilson, James Devaney and other literary figures.

Handwritten letter to Mrs Cassidy re parish news and Queensland literary news.

Includes brief note (photocopied) from the donor about the item's provenance.