The Alfred A. Reed Papers

R. van Niel The Alfred A. Reed Papers In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 120 (1964), no: 2, Leiden, 224-230 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl THE ALFRED A. REED PAPERS AND OTHER MATERIALS PERTAINING TO THE EAST INDIES IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A. I M requently the circumstances under which documents and family J| papers are found by scholars are fortuitous in the extreme. Since they particularly relate to a portion of the economie and entrepreneurial history of Indonesia (especially the island of Java), but also have bearing upon the social history of the mid-nineteenth century as well as upon commercial and mercantile history of the world, I feit that diverse scholars might be interested in knowing of their existence, and could benefit from the brief description which I shall provide on the basis of a rapid survey of their content. Additional historical source materials in the State of Rhode Island concerning the East Indies are to be found in various collections of merchant family papers.4 These papers have been more accessible to the public than the Reed Papers since they are located in libraries or in historical societies, and have to some extent been used by historians who have been interested in either the American or East Indian end of these trade relations. Within the last few years the Edward Carrington Papers have been placed in order and made available at the Rhode Island Historical Society (Providence).7 Carrington made his original fortune in Canton between 1803 and 1811, formed the mercantile house of Edward Carrington & Company in 1815, changed from mercantile to manufacturing activities about 1830, and was ruined between 1837 and 1843.