The Horace B. Putnam papers document some of the activities of this Danvers, Massachusetts, mariner and mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire. The collection has been organized into two series.

Series I. Shipping Papers consists of papers for four different vessels as well as seamen's protection certificates for Andrew Pinson, Samuel Varney, Jr., James Cochrane, and Thomas J. Pray. The folder for the bark Argentine contains lists of stores for the vessel. Papers from the bark Guide consist of letters of instruction, lists of stores, accounts, receipts, bills, and an inward foreign manifest. The "Chart Exhibiting the Ice as observed in the North Atlantic" is actually a map removed from the book On the Drift Ice and Currents of the North Atlantic: with a chart showing the observed positions of the ice at various times by W. C. Redfield published in 1845.

Series II. Personal Papers consists of household bills and several bills for nautical instruments. It also contains a resolution from the First New Hampshire Battery (New Hampshire National Guard) upon the death of Horace B. Putnam and a folder of notes, one on precious stones, and one on sighting with a chronometer.