Essex-built vessels were also photographed during their working lives as fishing schooners sailing out of neighboring Gloucester, Massachusetts. There are also numerous photographs depicting the landscape, historic architecture, industries, and people of Essex. 18th, 19th and 20th century manuscripts and documents depict the town's shipbuilding heritage and many other aspects of the town's history. Included are 18th century daybooks, vessel and labor contracts, a caulker's journal from the middle of the nineteenth century, the town's undertaker and coffin maker's detailed account of his work, and numerous records relating to the schools in Essex in the early nineteenth century. There are also many bills of sale, contracts for labor, lists of household expenditures, wills, deeds and personal correspondence that illuminate centuries of daily life in Essex.
Historic tools are another important part of the collection.
The museum has collected more than 500 shipwright's augurs, adzes, planes and caulking tools, to name a few of the many types, which help inform the community of traditional Essex shipbuilding techniques. In addition, the archives houses 500 plans of Essex-built vessels, to further help interpret the town's place in the design of the American fishing schooner. The Museum maintains, provides public access to, and interprets several important historic sites in the town center of Essex. The Museum Collections and the majority of its exhibits are housed in an 1835 schoolhouse, which the Museum leases from the town. It is also a valuable genealogical resource and the Museum maintains an inventory detailing the names and epitaphs on all gravestones.