This is a collection of correspondence, accounts, logbooks, notebooks, shipping documents, home remedies for ailments and diseases, etc. Topics include Gilderdale's command of the bark PERU on a whaling and sealing voyage to the South Shetland Islands, the steamships EUTERPE and GENERAL SEDGEWICK, and the ship MARY AND SUSAN; his Civil War service in the U.S. Navy on board the U.S.S. ADOLPH HUGEL, ARLETTA, COMMODORE READ, and YANKEE; and flags and signals.

Bills, receipts, accounts, correspondence, and other business records; printed materials, either for Wilson or associated businesses; items relating to yachting; signal flag drawings and measurements, photographs, and pamphlet; stock certificates; account books; and miscellaneous materials, including photographs, obituaries, stationery, advertisements, and business cards.

Papers and volumes resulting from Crothers extensive research into the history, use and details of flags as used by the American merchant marine. Includes a "Directory of Private Signals Flown by American Merchant Sail" which contains an index of colored flags. The collection also includes two illustrated volumes detailing the history of the flag hoist signal system, as well as the related correspondence and references upon which Mr. Crothers based his work.