This collection contains correspondence, drawings, photographs, transcripts, genealogy, and printed material relating to the Edmund Blunt family of Newburyport, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, New York. The papers are divided into three series.

Series I. Edmund Blunt (1799-1866) Papers document the voyage Edmund Blunt took to Central America in 1824 to explore the feasibility of a canal route across Nicaragua by way of Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River. The papers include original correspondence and drawings, and also transcripts of a journal, final report, and expense accounts. Some drawings may pertain to a later voyage (1830). Also present are a few letters to Edmund Blunt and his wife Eliza from their daughters Mary or Sarah or from other relatives, notes from Edmund Blunt's journal, and one letter from George William Blunt (1802-1878).

Series II. French Spoliation Claims contain information about French spoliation claims made on behalf of Captain John Sinclair by his granddaughter Eliza N. Blunt and great granddaughter Eliza S. Blunt, and in particular, the claim relating to the brig Recovery. Included are correspondence, notes, legal papers, newspaper clippings, and published materials documenting the history of French spoliation claims. [Note added by processor: the case was tried before the United States Court of Claims on March 24, 1913, and the descendants of John Sinclair were denied indemnity from the United States.]

Series III. Eliza Sinclair Blunt (1840-1933) Papers include Eliza S. Blunt's early memoirs, correspondence with the Brooklyn Eagle Press about publishing those memoirs, and two photographs, not identified but most likely of Eliza S. Blunt. Also present is extensive material Eliza Blunt gathered about the family genealogy, including information about the Blunt, Gilman, March, Pepperrell, and Whittemore families, and an article, "Growth and Distribution of Population," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine (1875).