Manuscript Group 58
JOSHUA AND THOMAS GILPIN COLLECTION
1771-1854
2 cu. ft.


The sons of Thomas Gilpin (b. 1728, d. 1778), prosperous Quaker merchant in Philadelphia and owner of flour mills on the Sassafras River in Maryland and on the Brandywine, Joshua Gilpin (b. 1765, d. 1840) and Thomas Gilpin, Jr. (b. 1776, d. 1853) operated as partners at both the Brandywine Paper Mills, founded by Joshua in 1787, and at their commission merchant business in Philadelphia. The collection consists of two parts, the journals and notebooks of Joshua and miscellaneous business papers of Thomas Jr.

Joshua Gilpin's notebooks are chiefly a record of travels from 1795 to 1801 in Great Britain, Ireland, and Continental Europe, with special attention to industrial developments, internal improvements, mechanical devices, and public institutions. Miscellaneous volumes are items pertaining to the United States and to Venezuela. There is also a script of a journal of a tour from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and down the Ohio and Mississippi, 1809.

The miscellaneous business papers of Thomas Gilpin, Jr., consist of a variety of business activities and enterprises dating from 1812 to 1854. Included are an indenture, 1771, of Thomas Gilpin, Sr., minutes of the Arbon Land and Coal Companies (includes also data on the Tioga Navigation Company), 1843; letterbook, Brandywine Paper Mills, 1807-1809; correspondence with James M. Broom, H. D. Gilpin, John Hemphill, and J. H. Markland, 1834-1851; and papers and certificates pertaining to joint stock companies, 1812-1854.

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