Scope and Content Note From the Collection: The William R. Gray papers contain one box of correspondence, legal, financial, and shipping papers for the Salem, Massachusetts, and Boston merchant. The collection is only representative of Gray's prosperous career. Unfortunately the bulk of his papers were destroyed in the Boston fire of 1872. The collection which ranges from 1781 to 1840 does, however, touch on almost all the major activities of Gray's life, reflecting his prosperous mercantile business and his presidencies of the Essex...