Salem Voice Tours

04/04/2026

April 4 in Salem history.

http://www.salemvoicetours.com

On this day in the history of Salem, Massachusetts:

April 4, 1850 The Salem Gas Light Company was organized.
1851 William Gardner Barton was born in Salem. Many of his poems were printed in the Salem Gazette.

1860 The Association for the Relief of Aged and Destitute Women was incorporated. It is now located at 180 Derby Street and is known as the Brookhouse Home for Women.

1995 Colin Powell spoke at the O’Keefe Center as part of the Salem State College Speakers Series.

The image is a Sunflower in the garden of the Brookhouse Home

10/02/2025

October 2, 1933 David Pingree, Jr. died in Salem. He left an estate valued at over $20 million in the depths of The Great Depression. With his 700,000 acres of land in Maine he was New England’s largest single landholder. His home throughout his 91 years on Essex Street would be given by his heirs to the Essex Institute. It is now known as the Gardner-Pingree House.

The photos is the Gardner-Pingree House on November 5, 2008.

06/05/2025

On this date in the history of Salem, Massachusetts:

June 5, 1830 Richard Crowninshield hanged himself in Salem Jail. He had been arrested in the plot to murder Captain Joseph White. He’d tied together two handkerchiefs, one around his neck and one to the jail cell bars, and knelt down to strangle himself. His death allowed the Knapps, who had hired Dick and his brother George, to go free. Dick Crowninshield was the one who did the actual murdering, and without a “principal” the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would have a difficult time pursuing a murder trial. Daniel Webster was brought to Salem to help prosecute.

1849 In a letter to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, in reference to his impending replacement as Surveyor at the Salem Custom House because his friend Franklin Pierce had failed to win his party’s nomination for President: “I must confess it stirs up a little of the devil within me to find myself hunted by these political bloodhounds. If they succeed in getting me out of office I will surely immolate one or two of them. I may perhaps select a victim, and let fall one little drop of venom on his heart, that shall make him writhe before the grin of the multitude for a considerable time to come.

1937 In opposition to the National Park Service’s plans to turn Derby Wharf into a park, Captain John Norton wrote, in the Salem Press:
It is my firm conviction that the men whose memory is presumed to be honored by this park development, could they be heard, would be the first to laugh the idea to scorn. They would never consent to the prostitution of the port they loved so well, for the purpose of providing a touting ground for every tom-tit tourist from Tootleville to Tomcat Corners.

The image is Salem Jail from the Howard Street Cemetery on February 13, 2006 photo by E.K. Smith

06/02/2025

On this date in the history of Salem, Massachusetts:

June 2, 1774 Newly appointed Military Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, General Thomas Gage set up his command at Salem. He rented a house in Danvers from Robert Hooper.

1832 Robert S. Rantoul was born in Beverly. He served as Mayor of Salem in the 1890s and President of the Essex Institute. His extensive writings on local history, all written in his home at 17 Winter Street, included stories on Wenham Lake, The Cod in Massachusetts History, Cat Island, The Early Quarantine Arrangements of Salem, and the Cruise of the “Quero.”

1990 Pete Seeger played a concert at Derby Wharf as part of the Massachusetts Maritime Festival.

The image is a Pete Seeger poster from a show in December 1965 accessed on the Northwestern University Library website. I couldn't find anything from Salem and really liked this poster.

06/01/2025

On this date in the history of Salem, Massachusetts:

1794 President Washington appointed Salem’s Timothy Pickering as the first Post-Master General.

1813 Residents of Salem witnessed, from Legge’s Hill, the sea battle of the American vessel “Chesapeake” and the British “Shannon”. Captain James Lawrence, who was killed in the engagement, uttered the famous dying words “Don’t give up the ship!”

1802 An advertisement first appeared in the Salem Gazette for a book that would have major effects on the reputation of Salem, its seamen, and especially its author:

The New American Practical Navigator
By Nathaniel Bowditch, A.A.S.
Is just published by Mr. Blunt of Newbury-port, and is for sale by Cushing & Appleton, Salem

1975 The National Park Service and the Salem Cultural Arts Commission hosted Quero Day at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. The Quero was the schooner Captain John Derby took to England in 1775 to score a propaganda coup by being the first to bring news to London of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

The image is Nathaniel Bowditch's famous book, accessed on the website of Paradise Cay Publications

05/30/2025

On this date in the history of Salem, Massachusetts:

May 30, 1806 Reverend Bentley wrote about a trip to Boston:

"I visited all parts of the Town after having paid my usual respects to the Book stores. I passed over the new road to the Dorchester New Bridge, and then visited West Boston. The Rope Walks at the bottom of the Common are rebuilding. Superb Buildings are rising in every direction. The changes are beyond all my expectations. NO part of Boston is without changes & the great improvements of broad Street have already distroyed all resemblance of the former appearance. The street from Charlstown bridge over the Mill pond is to be executed immediately. Faneuil Hall is greatly enlarged & has been already used & is finishing with great dispatch. The apartments below for the Market are divided for large & small meats. I suffered no part of the Town to be unobserved & everywhere found the same favourable changed in this place of my nativity. I returned in the stage to Salem."

Reverend William Bentley was born in Boston but was famous for living in and writing about Salem. He left a 32 volume diary of his experiences, observances, and gossip.

When I gave tours of historic homes for the Essex Institute in 1991 I learned of the Reverend William Bentley and his fascinating diary. Rene Conly, a family friend had given me the advice to write a diary in order to become a better writer, and I had been doing it for a couple of years. My eyes were opened to this man who wrote about living in Salem during the Revolution and the War of 1812. I have checked out volumes of Bentley's diary from Salem and Marblehead libraries for years, and now I consult it online frequently.

Volume 2 of Reverend Bentley's diary is here:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.diaryofwilliambe02bentl/?st=gallery

There is a cool podcast about Reverend Bentley here:
https://www.pem.org/pemcast/pemcast-35-the-curious-life-of-reverend-william-bentley

The images are the painting of Reverend William Bentley held by the Peabody Essex Museum and accessed on the aforementioned podcast page: James Frothingham, Portrait of the Reverend William Bentley, early 19th century and the Crowninshield Bentley House on January 24, 2005 by E.K.Smith.

05/28/2025

On this date in the history of Salem, Massachusetts:

May 28, 1775 Captain John Derby arrived in London with the Colonial version of the story of Lexington and Concord, beating General Gage’s envoy by two weeks.

1797 The “Friendship” was launched at the boatyard of Enos Briggs for Jerathmiel Peirce and Aaron Waite. She was one of twelve Salem boats who bore that name. This one was the inspiration for the replica that is now found at Derby Wharf. She was 342 tons and made 17 successful voyages before being captured by the British in the War of 1812. Enos Briggs’ Yard was near the current site of Shetland Park. Captain Peirce owned the house at 80 Federal Street now known as the Peirce-Nichols House.

1799 Nathaniel Bowditch was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a society founded by John Adams.

1813 The “U.S.S. Essex” captured the British whaler “Atlantic” in the Pacific off Chile, and re-christened her “Essex Junior”.

1814 The Salem privateer sloop “Diomede”, Captain John Crowninshield, was captured by the British sloop “Rifleman”.

The images are of the modern replica of the Friendship tied up to Central Wharf instead of Derby on May 22, 2003 photo by E.K. Smith.

05/26/2025

Memorial Day 2021 at Old Burial Hill in Marblehead.

If you are visiting the area and would like to know exactly where the scenes in Hocus Pocus were shot, my VoiceMap tour will show you those and will also tell you about some of the heroes of the American Revolution who are buried here.

This is Glover's Marblehead Regiment standing next to the monument to Captain James Mugford and the crew of the "Franklin". The tour includes information about them with a quote from the book "The Indispensables".

You can find it here:
http://www.salemvoicetours.com