The Isaac Needham Chapman Papers feature the shipping, personal, and family papers of this Salem, Massachusetts, shipmaster.

The shipping papers document Chapman's career as a sea captain from 1833 to 1838. The shipping letterbook and account book document Chapman's later voyages aboard the bark Annie Buckman and the ship Andes (1853-1858). The ships' papers contain the records of 14 vessels which Chapman mastered. These papers include master's and owners' correspondence, financial and insurance accounts, and inventories of ships' stores. Of interest are the ship Argo's warrants for the return of runaway seamen and an 1838 protest regarding an attack made by three seamen of the brig Osage upon their officers. The papers of the ship Nereus contain an 1818 manifest from the brig's first voyage (Chapman's father, Isaac N. Chapman, was master at this time).

The miscellaneous shipping papers include ships' accounts and merchant correspondence, directions for sailing into Port Jackson (Australia) and memorandums concerning trade in Calcutta. Also found here are correspondence and accounts generated from the insolvency case of Calef & Pierson, a shipping firm which was in debt to Chapman and his brother-in-law Joshua Phippen.

The personal and family papers contain personal correspondence and accounts of Chapman, his wives Sarah (Fogg) and Ursula S. (Phippen) Chapman, his son Frances Needham Chapman, his sisters Margaret, Abigail, Augusta, Mary A. (Chapman) Webster, and Elizabeth (Chapman) Grimes, and his father-in-law Captain Hardy Phippen. Of interest is an 1849 Salem East India Marine Society certificate honoring Chapman's gift of a United States Indian pipe (E3492), notes on the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, genealogical memorandums on the Burroughs and Proctor families, and an inventory of Chapman's house furnishings.