George Ropes Papers, 1865-1886

Collection

Identifier: MSS 1907

Staff Only
Not requestable

Scope and Contents

The George Ropes Papers contains the business papers of George Ropes, a New England businessman active in the latter half of the 19th century. Ropes was heavily involved in trade with eastern Africa. The business papers of John H. Goldsmith, a ship’s captain and agent of Ropes are also included. The collection has been divided into two series.

Series I. George Ropes and John H. Goldsmith Papers chiefly includes correspondence and telegrams between Ropes and Goldsmith. Correspondence is mainly comprised of Goldsmith’s reports to Ropes and Ropes’ instructions to Goldsmith. Also included are buisness and personal invoices incurred by Goldsmith while acting as an agent for Ropes, including receipts for the outfitting of vessels bound for Africa. Correspondence unrelated to Ropes between Goldsmith and his uncle, the ship-builder William Hammond is also included. Materials are generally ordered chronologically.

Series II. Voyage Journals contains two diaries detailing voyages and accounts written by agents of Ropes. The first details an 1867-1868 voyage from Accra, Ghana to Boston on board the Kedar (Bark). The second details voyages on board the Silesia (Steamship), Italy (Steamship), Sumatra (Steamship), and Coconda (Steamship) from 1874-1875. The journal also includes business account figures.

Dates

Creation: 1865-1886

Creator

Ropes, George, 1833-1896 (Person)
Goldsmith, John H. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use.

Biographical / Historical

George Ropes was a New England business man involved in U.S. trade with Africa through the second half of the 19th century. Related to the Ropes family of Salem, he was the born to George Ropes (1809-1948) and Charlotte Ruggles (1807-1861) in Portland in 1832 (Ancestry Birth Records). He married Mary M. Clark of Boston in 1877 (Ancestry Marriage Records). He died in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 1896 (Ancestry Death Records).

During the 1860s, Ropes partnered with John Bertram of Salem in maritime shipping and was a member of the Salem Common Council. In 1872 after moving to Boston he became privately involved in trade with Zanzibar, Madagascar, and East Africa. Later, he was the treasurer and manager of the Dickinson Ivory Company of Peterborough, New Hampshire (Ellery & Bodwitch, 669).

John Henry Goldsmith (1833-1899) was a Salem-based ship’s captain and agent who worked for George Ropes throughout the 1860s and 1870s. He acted as the New York agent for Ropes’ shipping interests in the 1860s and 1870s, also traveling to Zanzibar on Ropes’ behalf during this period. He died in 1899 in Salem of an opium overdose (Ancestry Death Records).

Extent

2.29 Linear Feet (3 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Series List

SERIES I. George Ropes and John H. Goldsmith Papers

SERIES II. Voyage Journals

Physical Location

Phillips Library Stacks

Provenance

The materials in Series I were purchased from Nicholas G. D'Urso on August 1st 2002 (Acc 2002.032). The materials in Series II were donated by Mrs. Fred A. Coker on May 11th, 1915 and was formerly cataloged as Fam. Mss. 854a.

Bibliography and Related Collections

Bibliography:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Maine, U.S., Birth Records, 1715-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ellery, H., and Bodwitch, C. P. (1897). The Pickering Genealogy: Being an Account of the First Three Generations of the Pickering Family of Salem, Mass (Vol. II). Privately printed. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=sZZQAAAAYAAJ&.

Related Collections:

Collection of Zanzibar Trade Documents, MSS 1902.

John Bertram Papers, MSS 104.

Letters to John H. Goldsmith, MSS 0.1591.