USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 5
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The natural history exhibit, which is housed in Weld Hall, con- sists of two departments-one of specimens from the world in gen- eral, and thus necessarily limited in extent; and the other a practically complete collection of the animals, plants, and minerals of the county, with a sub-department of relics of the prehistoric Indians. As Essex County in its five hundred and fifty square miles of territory has sixty miles of coast line, one large river, several small rivers, many ponds, innumerable hills, woodlands, swamps, mud-flats, salt marshes, sandy beaches, and rocky shores, its flora and fauna as represented in the Peabody Museum are extremely varied. The best of the individual groups is that of the birds, of which there are two hundred and eighty- one species, represented by 1,103 specimens, including native birds and numerous rare visitants. The other Essex County exhibits-the fish and reptiles, the invertebrates, the flora, and the minerals and rocks are all very excellent. The greatest new project of the depart- ment is the development of the insect group to include all the insects of Essex County.
The archeology department contains a large collection of relics of prehistoric life from the county, from the American continent in general, and from Europe. This material is much used by visiting students of archæology.
By its possession of the East India Marine collection, the society is more than merely a natural history museum, for Marine Hall is largely occupied by objects reminiscent of the early American ship- ping days, when the name of Salem was carried to all the great ports of the world; and Ethnology Hall contains a remarkable collection of articles illustrating life in the picturesque quarters visited by the Salem skippers.
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In Marine Hall a conspicuous place is fittingly accorded to an extensive collection of portraits of famous sea captains and merchants, including Derby, West, Gray, Peabody, Pickman, Silsbee, and Ber- tram. Adjacent are paintings of Salem ships, executed from 1795 to 1840 by such well-known artists of the period as Roux of Marseilles, Salmon, Corné, Carmillieri, and Ropes, while these same ships and more than a hundred others are represented by skillfully constructed models, including "The Friendship," 1797; the privateer "America," 1813; the armed brig "Rising States," probably 1786, and the frigate "Constitution," given to the museum in 1813 by Captain Isaac Hull. An inconspicuous but valuable feature of the department is a large filing case which contains ten thousand pictures of ships, four hundred photographs and prints of sea captains with short biog- raphies, an extensive catalogue of ships and ships' captains, and much miscellaneous material relating to navigation in former days. Research in this and other departments of the museum is facilitated by a well chosen library of 6,000 volumes and by a library for the particular use of the museum staff. Peabody Museum possesses one of the largest collections in the world relating to the merchant marine, and as the old merchant marine has vanished, never to return in its ancient form, the museum is performing an inestimable public service by preserving and guarding these interesting objects and records.
When a handful of Salem sea captains founded a society which had for one of its objects the securing of "natural and artificial curiosi- ties" found "beyond the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn" they little thought that they and their successors would amass in a Salem museum an internationally famous collection of Oriental ethnology, including the largest single exhibit of Japanese ethnology in the world. That Japanese savants should come to a small New England city to study their own ethnology seems incredible, but the staff of the Pea- body Museum remember with pride the praise given to their Japanese exhibit by visiting officials from the Japanese museums. In a section of Weld Hall are found the seventy-eight divisions of the great Jap- anese exhibit, which presents a very complete picture of the Nipponese social life of the previous century. Here, by means of thousands of articles, are represented warfare, religion, household life, trade, implements, transportation, fishing, personal adornment, toys, games, music, and art. Other Asiatic countries represented in Weld and
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Ethnology halls are: China, Siam, India, Tibet, and Korea, while Africa, South America, and the Isles of the Southern Pacific all have large and interesting exhibits, of which the most notable are the many objects from the Pacific Islands, which depict a culture dead or fast disappearing.
Thus by a curious twist of fate the Orient of the nineteenth cen- tury is preserved for contemplation and study in a Salem museum because more than a hundred years ago the Salem clipper ships ven- turously voyaged "beyond Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn" and their captains brought back curios from strange heathen lands.
Although less unusual in its origin and its collections than the old East India Marine Society, The Essex Institute has enjoyed a steady growth, and it now possesses not only the largest museum in Essex County, but it has a national reputation for certain of its special fea- tures. Voluntarily parting with its natural history department on the founding of Peabody Museum, it has specialized in its museum since 1867 in local history, genealogy, and art, while it has at the same time accumulated a large and valuable library, and has developed an active and important department of publications.
The institute at the time of its organization in 1848 occupied the quarters of the former Natural History Society, but in 1857 it removed to the lower floor of Plummer Hall, a building just con- structed by the Atheneum Library. Receiving a bequest from the estate of the late William Burley Howes, in 1887, it purchased from the heirs of Dr. Benjamin Cox, his former residence, a building adjoining Plummer Hall, which had been erected in 1851 by Tucker Deland, a well-known Salem merchant. Adapting the home to their purposes, the institute took possession of it in June, removing their exhibits from Plummer Hall, with the satisfied feeling that they were getting into entirely adequate quarters. However, the collections grew so rapidly that in 1906 the Deland house was too small to hold them. The problem was a serious one, but the institute solved it by purchasing Plummer Hall from the Atheneum. They connected the Deland House and Plummer Hall by a staircase hall that gave access to both buildings, and they provided the hall with a large picture gallery, spacious museum rooms, and book stacks accommodating 300,000 volumes. The new museum was opened to the public on September 9, 1907.
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The institute possesses several additional buildings, which it has furnished to illustrate the daily life of bygone generations-the John Ward House, the Gardner-Pingree House, the Peirce House, and the first Quaker meetinghouse, built in Salem in 1688. The Ward House, constructed in 1684 with overhanging second story and peaked win- dows in the roof, is furnished in the style of the seventeenth century, with "lean-to" showing an apothecary shop, a weave room, and a "cent store," a modest ancestor of the five and ten cent store. The Gardner- Pingree House, erected by John Gardner in 1806, occupied later by the Pingree family, and presented to the institute in 1933, represents a typical residence of a rich Salem merchant of the preceding century.
The thirty thousand objects found in the institute's catalogue are extremely varied in nature, ranging from articles and documents of great historical value to the humblest examples of daily living in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries. One of the most cherished documents is the "Sheffield Patent," dated January I, 1623, under which Roger Conant and his little band of "Old Planters" sailed to Cape Ann, established a settlement, and three years later removed to the "pleasant and fruitful neck of land called Naumkeag," now Salem. Of equal historical interest is one of the two original copies of the "Dorchester Charter," which gave authority to John Endecott to come to Salem in 1628 with additional settlers. Other souvenirs of those early days are a copy of the Breeches Bible used by Roger Conant and containing in the handwriting of his daughter-in- law a record of the death of his son, a sun dial that belonged to John Endecott, a sampler made by Endecott's wife, an iron fireback of 1660 with the initials of John and Alice Pickering, a pewter com- munion service of 1685, and the stand that held the christening basin in the First Church of Salem in 1691. Relics of later times include ---- a small quantity of tea from the Boston tea party; a miniature shovel used by Benjamin Franklin to hold coals for lighting pipes; and a wooden plough which an Essex County Minute Man left in the furrow when he went to the battle of Lexington. Among the interesting special exhibits are three completely furnished rooms-a kitchen of 1750, a bed room of 1800, and a parlor of 1800.
The collection of early newspapers is famous, including as it does complete files of the Salem "Register" and the Essex "Gazette," with the copy of the "Gazette" containing the contemporary account of the
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battle of Lexington, and more than three thousand "broadsides" or special news issues, which appeared before regular newspapers were common, among which are the broadside reporting the first revolt of New York from the Royal Government in 1775, the one soliciting enlistments on John Paul Jones' "Ranger" in 1777, and the one entitled "Bloody Butchery" beneath a row of coffins marked with the names of the soldiers who were killed at the battle of Lexington.
The Salem witchcraft delusion of 1692 is commemorated by vari- ous articles, of which the most striking is a sheet of foolscap contain- ing the report of the examination of Martha Corey, who was subse- quently executed. The document is in the handwriting of the Rev. Samuel Parris, who was the chief persecutor of the unfortunate victim and whose young children had started the dreadful movement, and it is signed by two judges, of whom Judge Hathorne was an ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The art gallery of three hundred pictures contains numerous scenes of historical interest, including "A Relic of History," by Philip Little (1857-), which depicts Old Derby Wharf with East Indiamen in 1788; "Salem Common on Training Day"; and "The Launching of the Ship 'Fame,'" by George Ropes ( 1788-1819). The collection of portraits is especially good, the most prized being, probably, the John Trumbull portrait of Alexander Hamilton, John Singleton Copley's portrait of the Reverend Edward Barnard, and Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Mrs. Charlotte Forrester.
The romantic picture of early American life is not complete for the visitor to The Essex Institute until he steps into the small, severe fireproof building which contains the thousands of documents bearing on the maritime, commercial, and personal activities of old Salem. This unprepossessing row of steel stacks loaded with books, filing cases, and bundles of frayed and yellowing papers is like a collection of phonograph discs or of moving picture films, a dull, monotonous housing for beautiful melody and thrilling or gorgeous scenes. Remove a roll of old papers from their protective covering and you may plunge into a tale of privateering sea raids, an encounter with pirates, a storm off Cape Horn, or a landing on a South Sea island, for you will be reading the log of a once famous Salem clipper ship. Again you can delve into the accounts of the great merchant princes who owned the ships or into the daily purchases of Salem families from
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their grocer or clothier. If genealogy is your interest, you have access to the only large collection of abstracts from English genealogical records in the United States, besides thousands of genealogical data of purely American origin. This treasure of information in the unro- mantic steel stacks is well known to special students, who come yearly by the thousands to seek material for a pirate story, a report on the early Oriental trade, or a paper on the curve of prices in the United States. One may learn that his great-great-great-grandfather was unable to pay his grocery bill and was sued in a Salem court, or that a well-known society woman bearing his own mother's name gave a great ball one January evening and ordered a huge quantity of pro- visions and drink. Does one desire to investigate more thoroughly any phase of Puritan, Revolutionary, or post-Revolutionary life in New England, he goes to the library of half a million books, where he finds a great quantity of material arranged and catalogued especially for his benefit. Two other important departments are the four thou- sand American and foreign book plates and the famous collection of American silhouettes.
Not only does the institute place its remarkable library at the disposal of the student and investigator, but it aids him by maintain- ing an extensive publications department. For sixty-five years it has been publishing an annual volume of historical collections, and between 1848 and 1898 it issued thirty-six volumes of proceedings and bulletins, these publications containing historical articles, memoirs and biographical sketches, genealogical reports, local stories of a traditional nature, and valuable material on the famous controversies of the early days. It has issued also several hundred books and brochures on miscellaneous subjects.
The present officers of the institute are: President, W. C. Endi- cott; vice-presidents, W. D. Chapple, S. W. Phillips, L. W. Jenkins, and J. F. Hussey; secretary and director, Howard Corning; treas- urer, C. F. Voorhees; librarian and editor, Miss Harriet S. Tapley; councilors, C. M. Fuess, Albert Goodhue, Philip Little, A. P. Lor- ing, Jr., W. E. Northey, G. S. Parker, J. D. Phillips, W. H. Ropes, W. O. Safford, J. F. Smith, J. E. Whitney, and R. H. Wiswall.
Having within its borders Peabody Museum and The Essex Insti- tute, the city of Salem is seen to be an important national center for the preservation of objects and documents that record for posterity a vanished life in the Orient and in early New England.
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The most extensive development of the historical museum in Essex County has taken place in Salem, but the movement has spread so generally that at present writing practically every town and village has its local historical society, the great majority owning their own buildings, which are in most cases formerly well-known dwellings. Eighteen of these societies are members of the Bay State Historical League, which was founded in 1903 "to assist in the development and cooperation of local historical societies," at first for Essex and Mid- dlesex counties, and later for the entire State. As can be seen from the following brief accounts of several of the local societies, the story is about the same for all :
The Historical Society of Old Newbury was organized September 5, 1877, with William Little, president; David L. Withington, corresponding secretary; Stephen Ilsley, recording secretary; and Nathaniel Dole, treasurer. The society was incorporated June II, 1896, "for the purpose of preserving and perpetuating the history of Old Newbury, comprising Newbury, Newburyport, and West New- bury." In 1909 the society was bequeathed by Mrs. Helen Balch Fowler the house built by John Pettingell in 1792. The collection of historical articles is very extensive and interesting, and the library includes a notable department of family records, diaries, and log books. The present officers are: President, Rev. Glenn Tilley Morse; corresponding secretary, Miss Sarah E. Mulliken; record- ing secretary, James E. Whitney; treasurer, George A. Learned.
The Beverly Historical Society, which was incorporated May 19, 1891, possesses a large collection housed in the Burley Mansion, which was erected by John Cabot in 178 I and willed to the society by Edward Burley. The present officers are: President, Miss Kath- erine P. Loring; vice-presidents, George P. Brown, Mrs. William Phillips, Mrs. Augustus P. Loring, Jr., and Dr. William Conant; recording secretary, Miss Bessie A. Baker; corresponding secretary, Miss Annie M. Kilham; treasurer, Roland W. Boyden; assistant treasurer, Frank W. Foster; historian and curator, Miss Alice G. Lapham; recording historian, Calvin P. Pierce.
The Topsfield Historical Society was founded in 1894 by George F. Dow. It now owns the Parson Capen House, built in 1683 and recognized by antiquarians and architects as one of the finest existing examples of seventeenth century New England domestic architecture.
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The society also occupies a gallery in the new Topsfield Library Build- ing, in which is displayed furniture, portraits, fabrics, and historical relics relating to Topsfield. Mr. George F. Dow is the present secre- tary and treasurer.
The Sandy Bay Historical Society of Rockport, which was organ- ized in 1895 and incorporated in 1926, began its activities in 1929, at which time it was given a room for its collection in the former high school building, then set aside by the town as a community center. The most complete unit of its collection is the library relating to the history of Cape Ann, a memorial to the late John White Marshall. The present corresponding secretary is Mrs. Helen W. Rogers.
The Haverhill Historical Society was organized in 1898. It owns two houses, the historic colonial mansion, "The Buttonwoods," well known because of Whittier's poem, "The Sycamores," and the John Ward House, which is the first frame house built in Haverhill, date 1642. Among the most valued objects in the society's collection are the deed of Haverhill given the first settlers by the Indians and sev- eral articles that belonged to Hannah Duston. The present officers are: President, L. R. Hovey; treasurer, Albert L. Sawyer; record- ing secretary, Mrs. Mabel D. Mason; corresponding secretary, Miss Pauline F. Pulsifer; curator, Leonard W. Smith.
The Marblehead Historical Society was organized May 9, 1898, its members being the trustees, past and present, of Abbot Public Library and its first collection being housed in the library. The beau- tiful and historic Lee Mansion, constructed in 1768, came into the market early in the present century, and the society raised enough money to purchase it in 1909. On account of the historic importance of its builder and owner, Colonel Jeremiah Lee, and because of the rare beauty of its architecture, its interior decorations, and its furnish- ings, the Lee Mansion is one of the most famous colonial houses in New England, and it is visited yearly by thousands of persons from all over the country. The present officers are: President, Richard Tutt; secretary and historian, Miss Hannah Tutt; treasurer, Wil- liam H. Bowden.
The Swampscott Historical Society has been in existence since 1902. It is not incorporated, and it has no property, but it is a mem- ber of the Bay State Historical League. The present president is John Albree.
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The Swampscott Historical Society, Incorporated, a separate organization, was formed and incorporated in 1920 for the express purpose of purchasing and preserving the "Humphrey House," an old dwelling that is claimed to have been the residence of Deputy Governor John Humphrey and to have been erected for his use prior to 1637 and probably in 1634. If the general date "prior to 1637" is accepted as authentic, the "Humphrey House" antedates the famous Fairbanks House of Dedham, which of proven date of 1638 has been generally acknowledged as the oldest house in New Eng- land. The date assigned the Humphrey House is based on a citation and a tiny sketch of a house found on a map of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that is now in the British Museum. The old house, which has been moved from its original location, was secured by the His- torical Society after it had been acquired by a real estate company and was destined to be destroyed. The present officers of the society are: President, Henry S. Baldwin; secretary, Miss Mary C. E. Jack- son; treasurer, Horace R. Parker.
The Andover Historical Society was incorporated on May 9, 19II. The society owns its own building, an old residence that was the gift of Miss Caroline Underhill. The present officers are: Presi- dent, John V. Holt; vice-presidents, William A. Trow and Frederick E. Cheever; secretary, Miss Clara Boynton; treasurer, E. T. Brewster.
The North Andover Historical Society was organized in 1913, Samuel Dale Stevens being its first president. In 1932 a handsome brick fireproof building of colonial design and the adjoining property known as "The Cottage" were presented to the society by Mrs. Sam- uel Dale Stevens as a memorial to her husband. The present officers are: President, Nathaniel Stevens; vice-presidents, Arthur P. Chick- ering and Granville E. Foss; treasurer, Isaac Osgood; secretary, Mrs. John W. Russell; directors, Mrs. Samuel D. Stevens, Dr. Joseph Kittredge, Mrs. William Sutton, and Miss Annie L. Sargent.
The Wenham Historical Society, organized in 1921 as a subsidary of the Village Improvement Society, owns the oldest house in the village, the Claflin Richards House, built in 1663; and it possesses a large and varied historical collection, of which the group of one thou- sand dolls is well known, having been exhibited throughout the coun- try in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The present officers
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are: Chairman, Mrs. Edward B. Cole; secretary, Mrs. George Per- kins; treasurer, Mrs. Nora Aylward.
The Ipswich Historical Society was organized in 1890. It owns the Whipple House, a very old residence. The present officers are : Honorary president, James W. Appleton; acting president, Ralph W. Burnham; vice-presidents, James H. Proctor and Francis R. Apple- ton, Jr .; treasurer, Mrs. Ralph Ladd; secretary, Mrs. T. F. Waters.
The library movement, which was destined to play such an impor- tant part in the intellectual development of New England, first mani- fested itself in Essex County during the second half of the eighteenth century. Wealthy colonists had for many years been gradually accumulating books, and book sellers had maintained private circulat- ing libraries with considerable success, but at last during the stimulat- ing years immediately preceding and following the Revolution and continuing up through the forming of the new republic, groups of citizens in the different towns of the county formed societies for the joint purchase and use of books. They issued shares, fixed annual dues, called themselves "proprietors," and named their organization a "Social Library." These Social Libraries quickly became popular, until there was scarcely a town in the county which did not possess one. Salem was a leader in the movement, opening its "Social Library" in 1760; the North Andover Social Library issued, in 1770, a notice stating that any one who wished to become a proprietor might do so on application to the librarian, Mr. Osborne; the Lynn Social Library was organized in 1815 and secured a charter in 1818; and so it was with the other towns of the county. A variant of the Social Library was the Philosophical Library, which appeared at about the same time and which was practically the same except for differences in the choice of books. These proprietary libraries performed a most useful serv- ice, and in general they continued to exist until the public libraries were organized.
Of the subscription libraries, the Philosophical Library of Salem had the most unusual origin. A Beverly privateer, commanded by Captain Hugh Hill and owned by George Cabot, captured in the Irish Channel, in 1781, a British boat that chanced to be transporting to Ireland the famous scientific library of Dr. Richard Kirwin. Sold at public auction in due time by George Cabot, the books were purchased
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by a number of Salem citizens, who proceeded to make them the basis of a new "Philosophical Library." This library became famous in Salem, and it exercised a great influence on the town's intellectual life.
The development of free public libraries as they now exist in the county was made possible by a series of acts passed by the State Leg- islature. In 1848 the Legislature authorized the city of Boston to raise $5,000 for the support of a free public library, and in 1851 it extended the act to include all the cities and towns in the State. In 1890 it passed a law empowering the Governor to appoint five persons to constitute a board of trustees, who among other functions were to advise local libraries and to provide $100 for the purchase of books for any town not possessing a public library. By 1904 the only town in the State which did not have a public library was Newbury, whose citizens used the library of their neighbor, Newburyport, but in 1926 Newbury founded its own library, thus giving Massachusetts the national record of being the first State to have a free public library in every organized city and town.
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