The Salem Marine Society Records document the administrative and financial activities of the Society and its work with members and the greater maritime and Salem communities. Records date from the 1760s through the 1990s.

Series I. Administrative records documents the founding of the society and its daily operations. Records include correspondence, meeting minutes and agendas, by-laws, membership lists, committee reports, and other administrative records. Subseries A. By-laws and acts of incorporation includes printed and manuscript by-laws and by-law revisions as well as amendments to the acts of incorporation. Subseries B. Meeting and committee records includes meeting notices, meeting agendas and minutes, and committee minutes and reports. Subseries C. Correspondence includes correspondence of Marine Society Masters and Clerks including Nathan Batchelder, Nathaniel Brown, Jonathan Fiske, Jonathan Gardner, Jr., Benjamin Jenkins, and Philip Chadwick Foster Smith. This subseries also includes requests for assistance. Subseries C. Other administrative records and documents includes membership lists, property deeds, anniversary menus and speeches, clippings, work contracts, estate decrees, and property inventories.

Series II. Financial records documents the financial activities of the marine society and includes receipts, bills, orders, insurance policies, treasurer reports, bank statements, cancelled checks, account books, ledgers, audits, roll books, financial correspondence, and cash books.

Series III. Publications documents the production of Salem Marine Society publications including files relating to the 200th anniversary book A history of the Marine Society at Salem and the member portrait book Portraits of the Marine Society at Salem in New England.

Series IV. Member papers and records documents the individual lives of members and includes funeral programs, member wills and will extracts, member questionnaires, member biographical scrapbook, and other personal papers donated by members.

Series V. Reference materials, objects, and other items includes printed and manuscript maritime and historical materials collected and used by the society, objects owned by the society, and other collected items.