The Isaac Cushing Papers document the shipping and lumber merchant activities of Isaac Cushing of Salem, Massachusetts. The ships' papers contain records of only six of the numerous vessels Cushing used to transport lumber and coal along the eastern coast of the United States. Of interest among these papers are the brig America's 1855 protest regarding storm damage, and correspondence and accounts relating to her going aground in 1858 off the coast of New Jersey. Also included is an 1850 protest of the schooner Invincible, which was run into by another vessel. The 1840-1844 account book contains shipping and sales accounts of Cushing's lumber business which transported lumber from Maine to ports as far south as South Carolina. Cushing's business and personal papers contain correspondence, legal, and financial papers, such as bills paid for Hannah Becket, land deeds, and a contract for construction of a sea wall off the 27 Water Street wharf.