The Elijah and Jacob Sanderson Papers reflect Elijah's and Jacob's prosperous cabinetmaking business. The collection has been divided into two series.

Series I. Business Papers has been further subdivided into papers clearly relating to the furniture business, other business papers, and legal papers. Subseries A. Furniture Business Papers includes shipping invoices and accounts of sales, and document what the Sandersons sold, both at private sales in Salem and at port auctions, and to which ports they were shipped. (See Appendix I for a list of the ships on which Sanderson furniture was consigned and the ships' destinations.) Also found here will be receipts for wood and hardware that were purchased for their business, as well as for services contracted, including furniture painting, gilding, etc., bills for advertising furniture for sale, wharfage and storage of cargoes, such as timber, and wages to indentured servants.

Contained in Subseries B. Other Business Papers are ship related bills containing information regarding cargoes to be shipped and the sale of cargoes, assessments, etc., which can be traced to particular ships, but which do not appear to relate to the furniture business. These are probably ships in which the Sandersons owned shares. Also found here will be promissory notes and miscellaneous business bills and receipts. (Although every effort has been made to separate any bills relating to the furniture business from other business affairs and the personal family bills, occasionally there is some overlap.)

Subseries C. Legal Papers contains contracts with ship captains, an indenture contract, deeds, bonds, pew deeds, insurance policies, and a power of attorney. The bulk of the legal papers deal with a court case between Elijah Sanderson and Caleb Burbank vs. John Waters. The case involved money owed to Elijah Sanderson by Caleb Burbank. Included in the papers relating to this case are depositions and other papers concerning the business between Burbank and Waters.

Series II. Family Papers contains miscellaneous bills covering groceries, clothing, taxes, repairs to the house, medical expenses (Edward Augustus Holyoke attended the family), tutoring for the children of Jacob Sanderson, funeral expenses for 11-year-old Jacob in 1795, and bills from the Salem Aqueduct for water and wood used for fuel. Virtually all of these bills deal with Jacob Sanderson and not Elijah. Also included here are two account books of the probate of Jacob Sanderson's estate that appear to be identical up to March 1811; one account book continues to October 1811. The more extensive account book also contains lists of weights and measures; although "Jacob Sanderson" is written on the cover, it does not appear to be in Jacob Sanderson's hand. The first folder of Jacob's estate papers contains probate papers and inventories, including extensive lists of furniture sold (or in some cases, not sold) as part of the probate. The second folder of estate papers contains bills and receipts due to Jacob's estate, including his funeral expenses. The folder of personal bills and receipts of Catherine Sanderson also contains an undated memorial to their son and an obituary of Mrs. Elizabeth Grosvenor, copied by their daughter Catherine. The estate papers of Catherine Sanderson contain probate papers, detailed inventories of her estate, and bills and receipts paid by her estate.

The Family Papers also include a detailed account given by Elijah Sanderson on the capture of Paul Revere. On the night of Paul Revere's ride, Elijah Sanderson, Solomon Brown, and Jonathan Loring rode out from a Lexington tavern. On their travels they were detained at a roadblock by British soldiers who asked them what they were doing. While being questioned they noticed some of the British chasing a man on a horse. When they captured him, Elijah Sanderson found out that it was Paul Revere. The British then let Sanderson, Brown, and Loring go. This account was taken from the Salem Gazette about the time of Elijah Sanderson's death (1825). Also included with this account are photographs of a portrait of Elijah Sanderson, of the monument at the place where Paul Revere was captured, naming Sanderson, Brown, and Loring, and the house of Elijah Sanderson in Salem.