George H. Safford was the seventh secretary and treasurer of Howard University in Washington, D.C., serving from January 19, 1899, to September 21, 1909. Safford, like Howard’s president at the time, Rev. Jeremiah Eames Rankin (1828-1904), the institution’s sixth, was white. (Rankin served from 1890-1903). Safford, like Rankin, also appears to have been a New Hampshire native.

Safford prior to his appointment at Howard worked for G. Peterson & Co., the contractors who built the Washington reservoir in the 1880’s and as Second Assistant Postmaster General in the 1890’s. After his service at Howard, Safford worked in the Department of Agriculture in Washington.

The correspondence generally concerns family and domestic affairs and only occasionally touches upon his work at Howard.