Scope and arrangement
Alfred Goldsborough Jones was a lawyer in New York City. His journals cover the period of 6 June 1840 to 27 November, 1867, and give some account of his education at Columbia and Harvard, circa 1840-1843; his legal training and practice of law; his service as an officer and director of the Sixth Avenue Railway Company, circa 1857-1864; his association with lawyer Theodorus Bailey Meyers; and the social, political, and cultural life of New York City and New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Jones' voyages and travels are extensively documented. Included are descriptions of trips to Easton and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Kinderhook, New York in August, 1842; travels to the West Indies for the benefit of his health, November 1842 to February 1844; travels throughout the Midwest and South, 1849 through 1851; a trip to Havana, Cuba, and New Orleans on business of a land company, May through July, 1852; to San Francisco, where he invested in real estate, 1853-1854; to Honolulu for a cruise on the St. Mary's under Captain Theodorus Bailey to Nicaragua, the Marquesas, Navigator and Fiji islands, and along the South American coast to Panama from November 1854 to May 1856; to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, 1861 and 1862; to San Francisco in the Fall of 1862 to settle the estate of his brother, Dr. Henry R. Jones; to Columbus, Kentucky, where he served as military secretary to General Alexander Sandor Asboth, March to April, 1863; to San Francisco and the Yosemite Valley, May to December 1865; to Maine with Admiral Theodorus Bailey, 1866; to Buffalo, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, October 1866; and to Saratoga, New York, Sheldon, Vermont, and Portland, Maine, whence he sailed for Nova Scotia to visit relatives, August to November, 1867. Journals are accompanied by a chemistry notebook containing "Notes with Professor Renwick" of Columbia College, which was later used as a scrapbook.