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| Salem: A Unique Place to Study the Past | |
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Salem and the North Shore: |
 Salem Customs
House, part of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. |
| Our historic community is, of course, associated with the early periods of the nation’s development —a base for Puritan colonization, the site of the Witchcraft Trials of 1692-93, the paragon of Far Eastern maritime trade, a center for early industrialization, an amalgam of ethnic populations. You will find an abundance of sources to support your interest in every period of the American past. | |
| Research
Resources The Department maintains strong ties with local institutions and research facilities. You will find ample resources to support your research in social, religious, political, economic, military, women’s, ethnic, or other topics of history. In addition, within a 100-mile radius, students can access: |
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 Ropes Mansion, Peabody-Essex Museum |
Historical societies and associations, including the Massachusetts Historical Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society, and hundreds sponsored by local communities. Museums, such as the House of Seven Gables, Newburyport Customs House Maritime Site, Paul Revere House, Peabody-Essex Museum, Pioneer Village, Plimouth Plantation, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Strawbery Banke, Sturbridge Village, and the U.S.S. Constitution. |
| Research libraries,
such as the American Antiquarian Association,
Boston Public
Library, Boston Athenaeum, Danvers Archival Center, John F. Kennedy
Library,
Massachusetts Archives, and Duncan Phillips Library. National Historic Sites, including those of Lexington, Lowell Industrial, Salem Maritime, and the Saugus Ironworks. |
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Salem’s Legacy Originally settled by Algonkian people as the village of
Naumkeag
(“the fishing place”), Salem’s history began with its founding by the
Dorchester Company as a fishing station in 1626. In this guise,
the trading post
became a platform for the Puritan Great Migration of the 1630s.
Its
pivotal location enabled the colonists to develop the town as a center
for
fishing, shipbuilding, and commerce. |
 Historic New England's Gedney House |
| Like other colonial
communities, Salem experienced the social tensions pulling its
opportunity-seeking citizens away from the control of those who sought
to maintain the ideal of a “city upon a hill.” Such tensions
undermined the stability of every colony. In Salem, they erupted
in the notorious Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692-93. Despite such
explosions, these no-nonsense, hardworking, energetic Saints carved out
of the “Howling wilderness” America’s first seaport and, through the
early 1700s, the most important commercial center in the colonies.
During the next 100 years, Salem’s Ornes, Pickmans, Derbys, and Crowninshields—the dynasties of its “codfish aristocracy”— innovated and refined the techniques that made the West Indies, overseas, and coastal trades an engine of the emerging American economy. Salem tacked to the winds of Revolution, refitting its schooners and sloops for privateering. Then, rebounding bravely from the post-Revolution depression, feisty Salem merchants crafted a fresh vision which encompassed new markets in the Baltic and, especially, the East. The new direction brought West Indian molasses and sugar, Cantonese tea and silk, Indian cotton and spices, South Pacific sandalwood, Arabian coffee, and Sumatran pepper to American shores. With the calamity of Jefferson’s Embargo and the rise of New York and Boston, however, the seeds of Salem’s maritime decline were sown. In response, its merchant innovators turned to the next generation of business success—industrialization—or resettled in the more promising economic locations of their commercial rivals. Over the next centuries, Salem and the North Shore continued to influence the great themes of the American past, making their own special contribution to such historical themes as westward movement, the New England literary Renaissance, the Civil War, industrialization, World Wars, Great Depression, Cold War, the Sixties, and de-industrialization. |
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| Salem and
Salem State College Today Historic Salem Walk along Salem’s tree-lined streets today, take in its gambrel-roofed Georgian houses and Federal brick mansions, and you can feel the history of the place. Stroll the waterfront and you stand amidst the old Customs House and Derby Wharf, 17th- and 18th-century homes and Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables, the remnants of shipyards, ropewalks, drying flakes, and tanneries. Pass Chestnut Street, Salem Commons, the old burying ground, and you may think you hear the voices of Nathaniel Hawthorne, merchant king Elias Hasket Derby, the elite of the “codfish aristocracy,” and the unfortunate twenty who perished in the infamous witch trials. |
 Statue of Salem's founder, Roger Conant |
| Yet, located just 17 miles north of Boston and easily accessible by major highways, Salem has a modern ring to it. In touch with the bustling innovation that has made our area the “hub of the universe” for three centuries, the region is home to many businesses which carry on Salem’s legacy of entrepreneurial spirit and American independence. The North Shore’s tourist trade attracts thousands of sightseers each year, supporting a wealth of museums, historical societies, and related resources. You can enjoy a cornucopia of attractions: state parks and beaches; restaurants and inns; whale watches and boat excursions; fishing, swimming, and sailing; shopping galleries, antiques emporia, and art colonies; and the excitement of year-round events. Two hours by auto bring you to the Green Mountains of Vermont, White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the coast of Maine for summer hiking, winter skiing, and a host of other year-round pleasures. | |
 Salem Normal School, forerunner of Salem State College |
The institution which would become Salem State College was founded in 1854 as Salem Normal School. The college’s historic mission—its commitment to training teachers—was part of the great nineteenth-century tradition of establishing a well-educated citizenry as the basis for democratic institutions. |
| Today, serving over 10,000 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students in its respected Schools of Arts and Sciences, Business and Economics, and Human Services, SSC’s goals have broadened to maintain currency with the challenging demands of a changing economy. In doing so, the college continues its devotion to the principle expressed in its motto, “a tradition of excellence.” | |
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Copyright © 1996-2005 Salem State College. All rights reserved. |
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