Series I. Nathaniel Bowditch Papers consists of correspondence, shipping papers, and other records of Nathaniel Bowditch. This series has been subdivided into three subseries.

Subseries A. Correspondence contains letters to and from Nathaniel Bowditch, the correspondence of his wife, Mary Ingersoll Bowditch, and correspondence with publisher Edmund M. Blunt (1770-1862), who published the New American Practical Navigator.

Subseries B. Early Work, Financial Records, and Legal Papers consists of the original notebook for the 1794 survey of Salem, receipts, shipping papers, mathematical tables, a land deed, and newspaper clippings arranged chronologically. It includes papers for the ship Putnam, and sloops Polly, Nancy, and Industry. There is also a folder of ships unrelated to Nathaniel Bowditch's life, which includes documents from the schooner Freedom, brig Eunice, ship Henry, and brigantine Cadet. The folder with drawings of Bowditch's dividing engine contains Xerox copies of the wooden pattern pieces, measured drawings of the metal parts by Philip C.F. Smith, Curator of Maritime History at the Peabody Museum, 1971, and Xerox copies of a notebook relating to the theoretical application for dividing in the hand of Bowditch's son, J. Ingersoll Bowditch.

Subseries C. Publications contains a copy of Directions for Sailing into the Harbours of Salem, Marblehead, Beverly and Manchester with an inscription and document from Harold I. Bowditch pasted in.