RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

William Earle & Co. Records (MSS 395)

Rhode Island Historical Society

121 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
Tel: 401-273-8107
Fax: 401-751-7930
Email: reference@rihs.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION  
Acquisition: Apparently, the records of William Earle & Co. were broken up and widely dispersed at a very early point. Portions of the records have been arriving at R.I.H.S.L. in a slow but steady stream since at least 1956. The bulk of the account books are labeled in a way that indicates they were housed in the old R.I.H.S. Cabinet Building, and thus were probably donated before 1944. That major accession has not been identified. Here are a few of the accessions that have been:#1948.17.1, Anonymous gift,Civil War imprisonment of W.L. Bowers; #1956.23.88-89, Paul Nicholson bequest, Two receipt books, 1857-1878; #1962.37.2.1-16, Susie (Sherman) Scott estate William Earle papers (whaling, etc.)1834-1868; #1974.64.1-, Nino Scotti purchase, Three boxes of records, 1830-1850; #1976.137.3.1-, William Longo purchase, 55 items: account books, receipts, ladings, etc., 1832-1876; #1977.93.2.1-, Mrs. Thomas Johnston gift, William Earle accounts with Mrs. E.G. Chandler, 1852-1877; #1985.69.7-8, Seaport Autographs purchase Two letters, 1837, 1838; #1985.93, Robinson O. Bellin gift, Letter received by Bowers, 1837; #1997.17.1-31, Ruth Crosby purchase 31 letters dated 1831-1832 (inherited from Crosby's brother's estate circa 1984); #1999.1.1.1-34, Charles Apfelbaum purchase, 34 letters and receipts dated 1832-1840; #2000.85.1-7, Paper Trails purchase, 7 letters from neice Helen Roth, 1874; #2001.23.2 Rick Stattler gift, Receipt from Burr & Smith, 1850; #2002.32.1.1-2, Cherry Bamberg gift, Two Tilley letters, 1839 and 1844; #2002.50.1-11, Cherry Bamberg gift, 11 receipts, 1837-1838, 1849, 1857, undated; #2004.83, Cherry Bamberg gift, J. Sachet letter, 1833.
Processing information: This collection was processed by Nathaniel N. Shipton circa 1976, but no finding aid was written. In 1999, some additional material was integrated, and this finding aid was compiled. In 2006, this collection was rehoused into archival folders and boxes and the finding aid was updated.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID  
Author: Finding aid prepared by Rick Stattler.
Encoding: Finding aid encoded by Mark Chepkwony 2009 July 01
Descriptive rules: Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)