Collection, 1816-1972, of Richard Columbus Mears. Includes letters to and from Mears and primarily his daughter Nellie Goodsell Mears, but also including his extended family, friends, and business associates discussing personal matters, financial matters, and news from home and abroad. The collection also contains personal accounts that include purchases Mears made on his many journeys for himself and his family and friends, papers detailing an inheritance dispute, and bills his daughter paid in his absence. There are several journals detailing his time abroad while serving as master on over 17 different vessels, viewbooks acquired during his travels, as well store accounts from his later years as a grocer in Greene, New York including bills of lading, receipts, and advertisements. The collection also includes records from the Van Valkenburgh family, Nellie Goodsell Mears' husband's family, including a journal a daughter-in-law kept at Smith College, a notebook detailing monthly expenses, and assorted papers.