The John Wood Papers mostly consist of letterbooks generated by the commission and shipping merchant business which John Wood established with his sons, John Henry (1810-1841) and Albert (1812-1853), following his financial failure in 1826. Also included is a small amount of material documenting John Wood's original shipping business. The collection is divided into three series.

Series I. John Wood Papers, 1819-1826, contains correspondence, financial, and legal papers which briefly illuminate the breadth of trade which Wood conducted with the West Indies and United States coastal states prior to his bankruptcy. The correspondence contains letters with foreign and domestic merchants, with John Stone, Wood's agent in Puerto Rico, and with his brother William Wood, a shipping merchant in Portland, Maine. Also included is master's correspondence with the captains of Wood's vessels, the brigs Ann, George, Otter, and other miscellaneous ships, and letters regarding general financial business. The financial and legal papers contain shipping papers of the brigs George and Otter, including a protest of the brig George's violation of quarantine laws, and the bankruptcy indenture which sequestered Wood's vessels and property in 1826.

Series II. John Wood & Sons Papers contains letterbooks, account books, and miscellaneous papers starting from 1828, when John Wood established his commission merchant business, to 1853, when Albert Wood died. The letterbooks, which consist of merchant correspondence, cover this entire period and reflect the growth of the firm over the years. Aside from business accounts and merchant correspondence, the miscellaneous papers include personal and business letters to John Wood from his sons Horatio and George Augustus, and correspondence regarding real estate.

Series III. Miscellaneous Papers, 1806-1840, contains miscellaneous merchant correspondence and shipping papers of the schooner Ivanhoe (which was run ashore by a steamship in the Mississippi River in 1834), the schooners Pembroke, Nun, and Ada, and the Jew. Also included is an 1817 cargo book from an unidentified vessel and directions for sailing the Gulf of Finland.