To commemorate Salem’s stop on the General Lafayette’s farewell tour of the U.S. 200 years ago, please join us for a Red, White, and Blue Picnic in the Chestnut Street Park across from Hamilton Hall on August 31 from 2:00-4:00pm. While we await Lafayette’s arrival via horse and carriage, guests are welcome to picnic in...
Join Judy Anderson for an outdoor walking tour about Colonel Jeremiah Lee’s risky, secret, and ultimately fatal activities during a tumultuous year from June 1774 until his death in May 1775. Rebel American colonists, including Col. Lee, began taking daring and dangerous actions toward their revolutionary separation from England. Any of Lee's actions could have...
Join Judy Anderson for an outdoor walking tour about Colonel Jeremiah Lee’s risky, secret, and ultimately fatal activities during a tumultuous year from June 1774 until his death in May 1775. Rebel American colonists, including Col. Lee, began taking daring and dangerous actions toward their revolutionary separation from England. Any of Lee's actions could have...
Join Judy Anderson for an outdoor walking tour about Colonel Jeremiah Lee’s risky, secret, and ultimately fatal activities during a tumultuous year from June 1774 until his death in May 1775. Rebel American colonists, including Col. Lee, began taking daring and dangerous actions toward their revolutionary separation from England. Any of Lee's actions could have...
Join a park ranger for a 45-minute walking tour on the grounds of Salem Maritime National Historic Site. During the tour, learn about Salem’s role in the American Revolution, from the arrival of General Gage in 1774 to the privateering battles featuring Salem ships and crews. Explore the stories of Salem residents, both free and...
Illustrated talk with internal and external photos about the Danvers country house of Marblehead’s principal 18th c. merchant, Robert “King” Hooper, where the last royal governor, British military Gen. Gage lived in summer 1774 when the Massachusetts government. moved to Salem. Built c. 1754, it was more opulent than his Marblehead home (c. 1728-30 with...
Tour the site of the Great Salem Fire, October 6, 1774 with retired park ranger, Curtis White. The fire destroyed shops, a meeting-house, dwellings, and the Custom House. Was the fire a diversionary tactic to deter the arrest of Massachusetts delegates who met in defiance of the Massachusetts Government Act? The walking tour will meet...
A guided tour of Abbot Hall, Marblehead’s fourth town meeting hall, whose corner stone was laid in 1876, the nation’s Centennial year. Be inspired by the life-size “Spirit of ’76” painting, explore historical scenes in WPA murals painted in 1934, and more. A different program in Abbot Hall is offered the following weekend. This event...
A walking tour of downtown Marblehead focusing on the mid-1700s, on the eve of independence, when the gritty but thriving and prosperous international Atlantic seaport was the sixth or tenth most populous metropolis in British N. America. The town’s zealous and nearly fully rebel (Patriot) service, both on land and at sea, through the American...
Women in full period dress relate their field activities as wives, mothers, and supporters of soldiers fighting in battle and performing camp life work during this documentary film. Fascinating perspective of family involvement during the War for Independence. Filmed with reenactors in Wyndham NH. Share your knowledge in casual discussion. Bring your lunch, tables available....
For some social history background related to Robert “King” Hooper’s “Great House at Danvers,” social historian Judy Anderson of Marblehead will present an illustrated talk about the two dozen members of Robert “King” Hooper’s family in Marblehead, Newburyport, and Danvers. You’ll find drama, tragedy, high-end fashion, nearly twenty portraits by J.S. Copley, complex family relations,...
Privateers, often seen as profiteers and pirates, were crucial to America’s first war. Explore this little-known part of Revolutionary War history. The ragtag fleet of private vessels, from 20-foot whaleboats to 40-cannon men-of-war, truly revealed the new nation’s character, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. Award-winning author Eric Jay Dolin will make this aspect of our...
