This diary was kept by Charles Storrow aboard the ship Boston on a trip from Boston to Mauritius and Italy from 20 Apr. 1860 to 7 Feb 1862, working as a commission agent for the Boston firm of William Perkins. In this journal, Charles writes about life aboard ship and describes the many ports where the ship berths, including Mauritius; Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); Rangoon (now Yangon, Burma); Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta, India; Cairo; Tripoli; Florence; and Pompeii.

In this brief autobiographical account, Dr. James Jackson (1777-1867) discusses his early medical career, starting his family, attaining recognition for smallpox inoculation, and of his sorrow at the death in infancy of his first son Edward.

"My Aunt Paula" is a memoir of Ann Gillam Storrow (1784-1862) written by her niece Louisa Storrow Higginson. It describes and praises Storrow's qualities; her skills in cooking, sewing and nursing; and her charity work, especially the provision of care packages to Civil War soldiers and their families. A typescript of the memoir is also included.

This narrative of Thomas's travels from May to July 1841 was most likely taken from journal entries or contemporaneous letters. In addition to chronicling his journey from New York to Missouri and back, Thomas makes observations about the physical geography and products of the locations he passes through. Of particular interest are descriptions of the resettlement of a group of Chickasaw Native Americans who had recently been moved to Oklahoma, and the Mormon city of Nauvoo in Illinois.

This autobiographical account of Thomas's family history and life through his late thirties begins by discussing his parents, Thomas Storrow and Ann Appleton Storrow, and his childhood in Jamaica. He chronicles the deaths of family members, his employment from the age of fifteen, his engagement and marriage to Sally Phipps Brown in 1804, and the birth of their children. In Paris during the War of 1812, Thomas writes about financial difficulties before and during the conflict.

Thomas's essay discusses the history of philosophy, philosophers' differing views of religion, and his opinion of their ideas.

In these pages from diaries kept during his final years, Thomas writes about his health complaints, visits from relatives, news from his grandchildren, books he has read, and current events. Entries for 1861 include a list of birthdays transcribed from the family Bible.

This essay draft includes Thomas's reminiscences of the city, its occupations, and Boston society as he remembered it about 1860.

Papers include annual statistics for the number of passengers, cars, and freight, including printed reports from 1835 to 1838. Also included are valuations of the railroad's machinery and the annual costs of conveying passengers and freight. An 1840 report describes the construction of the first track, as well as the origins of Lowell, Mass., including engineering and construction data and detailed, hand-drawn diagrams. An 1841 report discusses the breakage of rails and methods of repair, including cost estimates, diagrams, and correspondence. A September 1844 report describes the railway's condition to its directors.

Records include three reports from water commissioners Charles S. Storrow, James E. Baldwin, and George W. Whistler on the measurement of water in the Lowell canals in 1841 and 1842. Appointed in May 1841 by the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River and the manufacturing companies who purchased mill power from them, commissioners measured the water used by each company at their mills. Also included are Charles's bills to the proprietors for water measurement.

The Essex Company was incorporated on 20 March 1845 for the purpose of building a dam and series of canals to increase the efficiency of textile mills and for creating a manufacturing town on the Merrimack River, which would become the town and later city of Lawrence, Mass. Charles served as agent, chief engineer, treasurer, and director for the company. Records include an oversize 1845 plan of Essex Company lands; a March 1845 "memorandum of engagement" between Charles as agent and engineer and the Essex Company; an 1845 proposal to the directors discussing the need for more tenement houses for workers; a July 1845 contract for the Essex Company's dam across the Merrimack River; and printed statements of the company's accounts. Charles's private estimates and memoranda include cost estimates of the canal, fisheries, and reservoirs; memos on the work and organization of the company; and plans to buy Lake Winnipesaukee for water rights, dated from 1845 to 1850. Correspondence with Abbott Lawrence from 1850 to 1852 is largely related to the Pemberton and Pacific Mills. Lawrence writes from London where he served as minister to Great Britain, and Charles's retained copies are written from Lawrence. Treasurer's reports from 1851 discuss the future of the Essex Company, the development of the town of Lawrence, and the renovations of the Essex Company's machine shop. 1857 correspondence and memoranda discuss Charles's retirement as agent. Also included are an 1862 Essex Company report and an 1865 annual report of the trustees of the White Fund, a charitable trust established by Daniel Appleton White and the Essex Company in 1852 to fund free lectures for Lawrence residents.

Charles served as chair of the town of Lawrence's Finance Committee from 1849 to 1852. Records include correspondence related to his election and committee reports from 1848, 1849, 1850, and 1852.

In 1862, after the State of Massachusetts took over the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel in the western part of the state, it sent Charles to Europe to study modern tunnel construction. Included in this subseries are Charles's research notes from that 1862 trip, "Original minutes taken on a journey to Europe," including interviews with engineers, extracts from civil engineering papers, and records of visits to railways and tunnels in Great Britain, Italy, and Paris. Also included is correspondence with engineers, much of which is written in French, related to his research for building the Hoosac Tunnel and Deerfield River dam, dated from 1863 to 1869.

In his 1845 volume, Charles describes his memoranda books as "private pocket books" which have been kept for his own personal use, effectively a diary of his working life.

The books document his work with the water power commission appointed by the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merrimack River, the Water Power Association, and the Essex Company until his retirement as a director in 1882. Records include drafts and copies of correspondence, notes of meetings and conversations, financial records, plans, and diagrams. Interspersed with the business records are family financial records, notes on the deaths of family and friends, and reading lists.

Of particular interest are records related to the planning, development, and growth of Lawrence. The books include sketches of street maps as the settlement expanded into a town in 1847 and then a city in 1853. Two small volumes are related to the Pemberton Mill disaster of 1860, in which 88 workers were killed and 273 injured. Volumes list the names and job titles of employees who were killed or wounded, their family circumstances, and the relief provided to them by the company.