The George Bowen & Company records consist of sixteen volumes of account books covering the period from 1829 to 1898. Coverage is fragmentary, and no series is complete. The records describe the mechanics of the ship chandler's business in Newport, Rhode Island, and the retail trade in coal and wood, giving names of customers, quantities of goods bought and sold, and operating expenses. Chandler's accounts are generally arranged by the name of the vessel. Products include rope, bar iron, turpentine, white lead, tar, oil, pork, flour, oats, coffee, duck, etc. Accounts and letters for the coal business describe the purchase of coal from New York and Philadelphia wholesale merchants and its sale to local customers, including names of vessels and freights for bringing the coal to Newport. By the 1890s, customers include members of the summer "cottage" community, including J. C. Strawbridge and Cornelius Vanderbilt. A volume from the late 1850s is apparently a tally of bales of cotton shipped.