The Historic Ships’ Records is an artificial collection which contains material having to do with the shipping industry primarily in Salem, Massachusetts, but also Boston, Amsterdam, New Orleans, San Francisco, and London. Items in the collection include bills of lading, receipts, crew lists, disbursement records, insurance policies, and personal accounts.

Also included in the collection are ships' passports, each signed by United States presidents from Thomas Jefferson through John Quincy Adams. The passports in this collection are made out for the vessels Agnes, Clothier, Ellinor, Fame (brig), Frederick (brig), Grand Turk, Lotus, Marion (brig), Maryland (ship), Massachusetts (ship), Otho, Sally (schooner), Rebecca, Republican, and the William and Henry (brigantine). Nathaniel Hawthorne signed a customs document for the brig Mary, Samuel Adams signed a port document for the brig Polly; John Hancock signed a bill of lading for the Lydia and the brig Eleanor.

Several accounts of hardship on board are included in the collection; accounts of shipwrecks can be found in folders for the Lady Hobart, J. P. Whitney, and the Yoruba. A newspaper clipping from 1899 recounts the story of the U.S.S. Maine. Accounts of deaths can be found in the folders of the Nantasket, Elizabeth (sloop), and the Osterley, while the Meteor offers the account of a mutiny. Personal journals or letters are included with the papers of the Nantasket, Neptune (ship), Quickstep, Sophia, Star of the West, Syren, Talma, Tobacco Plant, and the Trident. The Turk and the Guy C. Goss include examples of poetry written by sailors; a sailor on the Guy C. Goss wrote an account of and a poem on the problems his shipmate was having with cockroaches.

Note: Because this collection is arranged at the item level, no series are delineated and the folders are arranged alphabetically. When the ship type is not known, the entry is designated as "unknown." Appendix I lists all of the vessels included in this collection.