Series II. Correspondence contains correspondence created by or sent to Carleton, Norwood & Co., with the bulk of materials created by business associates and ships’ captains and sent to the firm. Materials include letters, telegrams, and advertisements. The series is divided into two subseries. Subseries I contains materials created by correspondents who wrote a substantial number of letters to the firm or who hold particular research interest in relation to the content and context of their correspondence, and materials are arranged alphabetically by correspondents’ names, then chronologically within each folder. Subseries II contains all other correspondence and is arranged chronologically.

Carleton, Norwood & Co. worked closely with several shipping firms over the course of their business activities, particularly J.F. Chapman & Co., Charles Hunt & Co., Johnson & Higgins, Snow & Burgess, and W.R. Grace & Co. A connection with the latter firm was formed after the dissolution of Snow & Burgess, when partner A.D. Snow joined W.R. Grace & Co. and partner Levi G. Burgess joined several other firms; correspondence from all parties is included in the series. The company’s correspondence with the above shipping firms was frequent and thorough, and offers insight into business strategies and daily movements of their vessels.

A core strength of the collection lies in the rich correspondence from the ships’ captains, many of whom worked with Carleton, Norwood & Co. for a number of years and sometimes on several different vessels. The captains whose correspondence is of particular interest are Simon H. Wall, Forrest K. Torrey, James Allen Hudson, J.O. Farrow, David S. Kent, Frank A. Magune, F.H. Cooper, Lucien P. Heal, and members of the Amsbury family. Their letters form the heart of the collection and offer not only detailed information about each voyage and vessel, but also insight into the professional relationships and personal friendships between the captains and the members of the firm.