This collection is comprised of a modest number of personal papers belonging to one branch of the Ropes family of Salem, Massachusetts. Included are personal letters, receipts, photographs, one sketch, a church covenant (1680), and newspaper articles. In addition, the collection includes a transcript of the autobiography of John Bertram, a prominent Salem citizen who married Mary Anne Ropes in 1848.

The first three folders contain personal writings of members of the Ropes and Bertram families. In Folder 1 are 16 letters from Thomas Holmes Ropes (1803-1845) to his family dating from 1838, when he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to his death in 1845. During this time he worked as a grocer and merchant but never achieved financial success. Folder 1 also contains two letters to Thomas Holmes from his brothers George or Henry, as well as a letter of condolence to his father following Thomas Holmes' death.

Folder 2 contains writings of Joseph Ropes (1812-1885). There is a long lecture about the uses of imagination and the role of the artist in conceiving works of beauty, delivered to a young men's association in Portland, Maine, in about 1840. Also present is a letter to his sister Mary Anne (1840) and two passports (1855, 1864) documenting his extensive travels in Europe, especially in Italy, France, and Switzerland.

Folder 3 is a 27-page typewritten transcript "Incidents in the Life of John Bertram Written by Himself" which John Bertram wrote in the form of a diary and finished in 1876. The autobiography tells the story of a young seaman whose family emigrated from the Isle of Jersey to Salem in 1807. Bertram rose quickly through the ranks to become a respected ship master. He retired from the sea in 1832 to pursue his mercantile interests. His vessels sailed to Para, Zanzibar, Madagascar, and many other foreign ports and also to California after the discovery of gold. Bertram also had interests in railroads, shipbuilding, and civic affairs. He is remembered in Salem as a noted philanthropist. (The autobiography, including a facsimile of the original handwritten work, was published by a descendant in 1964.)

The next three folders contain receipts belonging to Thomas Holmes (Folder 4), his son-in-law Timothy Ropes (Folder 5), and Timothy's son Thomas Holmes Ropes (Folder 6).

In Folder 7 is a hand drawn sketch by Joseph Ropes entitled "My Room at 373 Essex Street," with a note added later "In this chamber Timothy Ropes died on February 17th 1848 and Sarah Ropes his wife died March 9th 1848."

Folder 8 contains one photograph of the Ropes-Bertram house at 373 Essex Street, and two photographs of the Assembly House at 138 Federal Street, occupied by Mary Anne Bertram from about 1885 until her death.

Folder 9 contains a church covenant dating from 1680. It renews the original convenant of the First Church of Christ in Salem, a covenant that was first composed in 1629.

Folder 10 contains three newspapers, including the Salem Gazette of August 19, 1796, and the Essex Register of February 23, 1832, and April 27, 1840. Also present is an account from the Salem Gazette (October 26, 1888, and correspondence following) of General Washington's reception at the Assembly House in Salem in 1789. This house was occupied by Mary Anne Bertram at the time the Salem Gazette article appeared.