Series I. Correspondence consists of correspondence between Peabody Museum of Salem trustees, directors, and curators, both before and during Barbour's time as a trustee. All of the correspondence relates to the business of the Peabody Museum of Salem, its collections, operations, publications, and fellow trustees. There are occasional personal notes in the correspondence, but these are fleeting. Within the correspondence with Ernest S. Dodge, Curator of Natural History and Assistant Curator of Ethnology are photographs of East India Marine Hall after its renovations and a report about children's education at the Peabody Museum. In the correspondence with Lawrence Jenkins, the Director of the Peabody Museum, are a number of photographs of tortoise shells from the Museum's collections. Located within the correspondence with Water M. Whitehill, the Assistant Director and Assistant Curator of the Marine Rooms, is a copy of the manuscript "The Peabody Academy of Science: Its Inception, A Bit of Private History."