This collection includes business and personal correspondence, shipping bills and accounts, artwork, military documents, and manufacturing plans from three generations of the Coffin family of Newburyport, Massachusetts. The contents have been organized into five series.

Series I. David Coffin (1763-1838) Papers include a record of Coffin's service in the Revolutionary War as well as shipping accounts and papers from his career as a ship's captain.

Series II. Isaac Stone Coffin (1798-1855) Papers include shipping bills, accounts, and inventories for his travels as well as personal bills and accounts for his home in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Series III. Ebenezer Stone Coffin (1801-1870) Papers include plans for the improvement of ship manufacturing, business correspondence, patent applications, and correspondence related to patents for his inventions. Also in this series are records confirming Coffin as the Deputy Collector of Penobscot, Maine. Personal papers include drawings, poems, and family correspondence.

Series IV. Lucy Stevens Coffin (1831-1907) Papers include two items: a sketchbook started in 1856 filled with landscape, nature, and family scenes; and a notebook, which includes many newspaper obituaries of family members. Some of these she copied in her own handwriting and others remain in their printed form. She also included other notable clippings related to the family.

Series V. Edward Foster Coffin (1839-1912) Papers contain primarily business correspondence between Coffin and his lawyer, Richard Badger, related to the failure of Coffin's business. Other materials of note include his conscription papers from 1863. Coffin communicated to the substitute sent to war in his stead, Robert Read; this series includes a photograph of Read. The series also includes bills, accounts, and personal correspondence.