Alden was an officer in the sloop-of-war 'Vincennes', the flagship of the United States Exploring Expedition which spent four years in the Pacific under the command of Commodore Charles Wilkes.

The journal gives an account - but not a day-by-day account - of the Vincennes voyage which took in the Tuamotu Archipelago, Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, the Antarctic, Hawaii, the Gilbert (Kiribati), Ellice (Tuvalu) and Marshall Islands. See also PMB MS 124-146 and the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu, Dec. 1971:25, pp. 4-7.

A catalogue of the ethnographic items collected by the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific (1838-42) led by Commodore Charles Wilkes. The Expedition visited the Tuamotu Islands, Tahiti (in French Polynesia), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Lord Howe Island, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), Marshall Islands, and Hawaii. The catalogue was prepared in 1846 by Titian Ramsay Peale, an artist-naturalist with the Expedition. A typescript version, prepared by the PMB, follows the original document on the microfilm. See also the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu, October-December 1971:25, pp. 4-7 and PMB MS 89 and MS 146.

The logbooks cover voyages in the ships 'Laughing Water' (1868), 'Corypheus' (1870-71), 'Day Spring' (1872), 'Alsager' (1872-73) and 'Ceara' (1874). The voyages in the 'Laughing Water' were between Newcastle, Lyttleton (NZ) and Melbourne. Those in the 'Corypheus' between Melbourne and China. On her last voyage the 'Corypheus' ran aground on a reef in the Marshall Islands and the crew sailed 3,000 miles in the ship's boats to Rockhampton. The voyage of the 'Day Spring' was from Melbourne to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and return. The 'Alsager' sailed from Melbourne to Malden Island for a cargo of guano. She foundered off Tongatapu, apparently as a result of sabotage. The 'Ceara's' voyages were from Adelaide to Mauritius and then to various Australian ports.

Townsend and Moore were members of the US Fisheries Commission aboard the U.S. Fisheries Commission Steamer Albatross which made a cruise to the South Pacific in 1899 - 1900 under Commander Jefferson F. Moser, USN.

Ethnographic notes on the Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu Islands, Society Islands (French Polynesia), Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Ellice Islands and Gilbert Islands (Tuvalu and Kiribati), Marshall Islands, and Caroline Islands.

The records begin with a report from a German official in Jaluit to the Duke of Bismarck, dated May 6, 1887, stating that local German firms had suggested that the German Protectorate of the Marshall Islands should be extended to cover Nauru. A report written in Jaluit on October 31, 1888, by Herr Sonnenschein, the German Imperial Commissioner in the Marshall Islands, describes the raising of the German flag on Nauru on October 2, 1888. There are several extensive reports on conditions on Nauru. The remainder of the documents deal with the German administration of Nauru.