These papers consist of the private correspondence of George Frederick Jewett, his father James Richard Jewett, and his grandfather George Washington Jewett. The letters date from 1853 to 1950.

The earlier correspondence, 1853 to 1880, contains primarily the letters of George Washington Jewett, a sea captain, and his wife Annie M. Jewett to the various members of their family. Captain Jewett died in Honolulu in 1879 while on a voyage and there is a considerable volume of letters concerning his death. During this period, and up to the end of the century, there are many letters from friends and relations, many of them recounting day to day occurrences which taken as a whole clearly portray the life of the Jewett family in the second half of the nineteenth century.

After 1890 the correspondence provides extensive information about the life of James Richard Jewett. There are numerous letters to Mr. Jewett, appointed Professor of Arabic at Harvard University in 1911, from his academic colleagues at Yale, Harvard and at the University of Chicago where Professor Jewett had also held tenure. Also included are letters from the American University at Cairo and at Beirut and from the American Oriental Society, institutions with which Jewett was closely associated and in which he took an active interest.

During the second decade of the twentieth century there are many letters from George Frederick Jewett (Fritz) to his parents describing his experiences at Phillips Academy Andover, and subsequently in the United States Navy. Correspondence is limited throughout the period 1920-1929 but during the thirties is particularly full. It includes letters to and from the immediate Jewett family members, and from other relations and friends. Correspondence with Mr. and Mrs. William Bancroft Hill is extensive, as it is with Mr. and Mrs. William Grant Cooper. In 1935 there are letters concerning the kidnapping of George Hunt Weyerhaeuser.

The volume of letters decreases rapidly in the 1940's and the little that does exist is primarily letters from G.F. Jewett and his wife to their two children and the replies of the latter to their parents. Correspondence terminates in 1950.

These letters are fundamentally of family interest; the information to be found in them would be of secondary value to a study of the business interests of George Frederick Jewett, although in some instances the letters provide helpful clues to matters discussed in other sources. As research material for family and social history these letters do provide a more than adequate picture of the daily lives of George Frederick and James Richard Jewett and their wives during those years in which correspondence is fairly complete. Typical subjects discussed include social activities, trips and medical problems and there is a considerable body of material disclosing the effects of the depression on the family. Combined with his personal business correspondence and with his purely business correspondence these personal letters do much to help form an accurate biographical picture of George Frederick Jewett.