The Osgood Family papers document five generations of the Osgood family of Salem, Massachusetts, including the shipping and business papers of John Osgood (1758-1826), shoemakers' ledgers of Nathaniel (1714-1799) and Christopher (1748-1828) Osgood, and John F. Osgood's (1825-1894) autobiography describing his international travels. The papers also contain diverse records of many other family members and relatives. The collection is divided into two series.

Series I. John Osgood (1758-1826) Papers contains correspondence, financial, legal, and estate papers that document John's activities as a shipmaster and shipping merchant, and briefly describe his other business concerns. The correspondence incudes general merchant correspondence, letters with his mercantile partner, William Gray, and correspondence regarding Count Basile Apraxin's fiscal affairs during his visit to the United States (1802-1807). The paucity of shipping records in the series does not reflect the thriving trade that John conducted with Europe and India. Only one folder of legal and financial records documents the privateering and shipping vessels that John owned or mastered (See Appendix I for a listing). Of interest in the financial papers are receipts and accounts of Basile Apraxin and his mother, the Countess Elisabeth Apraxin of Russia, real estate accounts, and household receipts for furniture made by William Appleton and Nehemiah Adams. Also included are receipts from the Salem Iron Factory, of which John was an early shareholder, and accounts and shareholders' lists that John kept as treasurer of the Salem Female School. Besides numerous deeds for land on Brown Street in Salem, the legal papers contain John's Justice of the Peace certificate (1816), a house building agreement (1781), and a Gedney family genealogy that related to the Brown Street lands. The estate papers include the wills of John and his wife, Rebecca (Messervy), house inventories, and John B. Osgood's' estate trustee papers.

Series II. Family Papers contains a wide variety of materials documenting numerous Osgood family members and relatives. The ledgers of Nathaniel (1714-1799) and Christopher (1748-1828) Osgood reflect the activities of these 18th-century shoemakers. John B. Osgood's (1783-1853) papers do not adequately reflect his prosperous interest in the whaling industry. His records include merchant correspondence with Osgood & Company (the failing business of his brothers-in-law Robert H. and John W. Osgood), wharf and land deeds, accounts from Henry Osgood's estate, a bill of sale for the ship Minerva, a single account of the whaling ship Bengal, a crew list of the ship James Maury, and financial papers regarding real estate in Vandalia, Illinois. William H. Osgood's (b. 1821) letter and account books contain merchant and master's correspondence and accounts of the ships Paris, Ann Maria, and Valparaiso on their voyages to the Far East, the East Indies, and along the coast of the United States.

Joseph B. F. Osgood's (1823-1913) papers contain no mention of his career as a Massachusetts legislator or Salem judge and mayor. His records are comprised of correspondence and accounts regarding his wards, Samuel and Caroline D. West, who were residents of the McLean Asylum for the Insane and the Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. John F. Osgood's (1825-1894) autobiography provides fascinating accounts of his voyages on the barks Brenda and Emily Wilder, and the schooner Curlew, and his travels through Arabia, the east coast of Africa, France, Egypt, and San Francisco.

Charles S. Osgood's (1839-1897) papers contain theater journals, handbills, and programs, and photographs of theater stars. The family papers include a wide variety of records: deeds for property of or near John (b. 1716), Nathaniel (1714-1799), and Benjamin (1719-1809) Osgood; personal letters to Rev. George P. Smith; John C. Osgood's will and correspondence and accounts regarding his real estate in Vandalia, Illinois; the wills of Christopher Osgood (1748-1828) and Jonathan Messervy (dated 1755); Charles S. Osgood's internal revenue license; Mehitable Osgood's 1842 diary written in to an 1839 almanac; and Harriet L. Whipple's reminiscence of an 1833 journey from Boston to Uxbridge, Massachusetts.

Of interest in the miscellaneous papers are the 1774 will of Nathaniel Brown, estate papers of Solomon Lufkin whose estate was handled by Nathaniel Ingersoll, an Ingersoll deed for land on Turner Street, an 1891 Salem pamphlet describing funeral rings, and memorandums of William B. Cushing's Civil War pension.

The bulk of the John Osgood papers is available on microfilm reel #1.