Lovely Salem trip
Jun. 16th, 2007 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugeeJust back from a deliciously long day in Salem, Massachusetts, in which I saw/went to:
--The Salem Witch House, which is better called the Salem Witch Trial Judge House, since it was the home of Jonathan Corwin, the first judge on the Salem Witch Trials, who recused himself from the trials after the first case or so since he didn't approve of the "spectral evidence" given at the trials.
--The Salem Witch Dungeon, which has to be the most scary museum I've been to: the first half of the tour is a reenactment of part of the Trials, performed by local young actors, while the second half is a tour of a reconstruction of the dungeon (which was rediscovered a couple blocks from where the museum is now, in the 1950s when the New England Telephone Company was digging the foundations for a new office building; unfortunately, the historical society didn't have as much clout as it does now, so the original dungeon was destroyed). You look at some of the cells, how narrow and cramped they are, and it hits you how horrible this incident in history really was.
--"Something Wicked This Way Comes", a half-hour multimedia presentation by two young actors at the Griffen Theatre, retelling some of the ghostly history of Salem. Very low-budget with cheap props, but it's clearly a labor of love, and well worth seeing if you're in the city.
--The old burying ground, in search of my mom's great-grandmother Susan or Sarah Smith (who turns out to have been buried in Wilmington). I'm trying to find out more about her and what she was like. If I remember correctly, she was living in Salem at the time of the Witch Trials, and I can't help wondering what she thought of what was going on. I doubt she shared my libertarian views on it, but I can't help feeling she had a sense that something was very wrong about the whole situation. Also, the nearby memorial for the victims of the Witch Trials, a simple granite enclosure with slabs carved with the names of the victims set into the wall
Also did a little shopping: picked up a pentacle pendant for my Harry Dresden costume, and a small statue of Anubis in jackal form, as inspiration for my next installment in the series I'm working on, since I'll be focusing on Mamnon Theristus and how he got that way...
--The Salem Witch House, which is better called the Salem Witch Trial Judge House, since it was the home of Jonathan Corwin, the first judge on the Salem Witch Trials, who recused himself from the trials after the first case or so since he didn't approve of the "spectral evidence" given at the trials.
--The Salem Witch Dungeon, which has to be the most scary museum I've been to: the first half of the tour is a reenactment of part of the Trials, performed by local young actors, while the second half is a tour of a reconstruction of the dungeon (which was rediscovered a couple blocks from where the museum is now, in the 1950s when the New England Telephone Company was digging the foundations for a new office building; unfortunately, the historical society didn't have as much clout as it does now, so the original dungeon was destroyed). You look at some of the cells, how narrow and cramped they are, and it hits you how horrible this incident in history really was.
--"Something Wicked This Way Comes", a half-hour multimedia presentation by two young actors at the Griffen Theatre, retelling some of the ghostly history of Salem. Very low-budget with cheap props, but it's clearly a labor of love, and well worth seeing if you're in the city.
--The old burying ground, in search of my mom's great-grandmother Susan or Sarah Smith (who turns out to have been buried in Wilmington). I'm trying to find out more about her and what she was like. If I remember correctly, she was living in Salem at the time of the Witch Trials, and I can't help wondering what she thought of what was going on. I doubt she shared my libertarian views on it, but I can't help feeling she had a sense that something was very wrong about the whole situation. Also, the nearby memorial for the victims of the Witch Trials, a simple granite enclosure with slabs carved with the names of the victims set into the wall
Also did a little shopping: picked up a pentacle pendant for my Harry Dresden costume, and a small statue of Anubis in jackal form, as inspiration for my next installment in the series I'm working on, since I'll be focusing on Mamnon Theristus and how he got that way...