Guild Study Program | Peabody Essex Museum
November 18 - 21, 2011
Salem, Massachusetts has 375 years of American heritage and maritime history, and is located on the north shore of Boston, approximately 16 miles north of the city. America’s first millionaires lived in Salem, acquiring their wealth in trade to exotic ports in the Far East, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. At the time of our Revolution, ships flew the flags of their home ports. It was reported that so many ships flew the flag of Salem in the harbors of the Far East that Salem was thought to be a sovereign nation.
Salem is well known for the infamous witch trials of 1692. The House of the Seven Gables Historic Site includes the House of the Seven Gables (1668), America’s oldest wooden mansion; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Birthplace (1750); The Retire Becket House (1655); the Hooper-Hathaway House (1682); and a Counting House (1830).
Salem’s military heritage began in 1636 when the first muster appeared on Salem Common, just outside the Hawthorne Hotel, where we have arranged lodging for participants, and where our classes will be held.
A legacy of the wealth of Salem’s ship owners and merchants lines the streets of Salem. Two significant groupings of architectural treasures can be found in the Derby Street Historic District on the Salem waterfront and the McIntire Historic District, named for Samuel McIntire, Salem’s renowned architect and carver.
Many superb examples of federal-style architecture, which McIntire is known for, can be found on Chestnut Street, America’s first planned street, laid out in 1796. It has been called the most beautiful street in America.
The Salem Maritime National Historic Site is the home of a replica of the merchant ship Friendship, which was launched in 1797. It was designed for trade with India, China, and Indonesia. The Friendship brought to Salem exotic cargoes of pepper, coffee, tea, silk, and nutmeg. The ship’s logs, three paintings, and a highly detailed model are preserved at The Peabody Essex Museum. The site also contains the Custom House (1819), where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked as a surveyor of the port of Salem and collected material for The Scarlet Letter; the Derby House (1762), home of Elias Hasket Derby, America’s first millionaire; and Salem Harbor.
The Peabody Essex Museum is the oldest continually operated museum in America. It was founded in 1799 as the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains who had sailed beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” which is what we today would call a museum. Society members brought to Salem a diverse collection of objects from the northwest coast of America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, India, and elsewhere.
The Peabody Essex Museum is one of the nation's major museums for Asian art, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Indian art, along with remarkable collections of Asian Export art and 19th-century Asian photography. It presents the earliest collections of Native American and Oceanic art in the nation. Its 22 historic houses and gardens, and American decorative art and maritime-art collections provide an unrivaled spectrum of New England's heritage over 300 years. Class projects are derived from items in the museum’s collections.
On a lighter side, Salem is noteworthy for being the site where the first elephant appeared in America. Jacob Crowninshield brought one back from a voyage to the Indian Ocean in 1797.
More information about Salem can be found at the following websites:
Destination Salem—www.salem.org
Salem Chamber of Commerce—www.salem-chamber.org
Peabody Essex Museum—www.pem.org
Hawthorne Hotel—www.hawthornehotel.com
Salem Maritime National Historic site—www.nps.gov/sama
House of the Seven Gables—www.7gables.org
Salem Witch Museum—www.salemwitchmuseum.com
Witch History Museum—www.witchhistorymuseum. com
New England Pirate Museum—www.piratemuseum.com
Salem Historical Tours—www.salemhistoricaltours.com
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