The Distracted Wanderer

I have to admit to getting pretty excited when I recently learned about two new exhibitions that will be opening at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts this fall. Beginning on September 26 and focused on Salem’s rich and storied history, The Salem Witch Trials 1692 and Salem Stories  will be brimming with the stories, people, and objects that can only be found in Salem, Massachusetts - a unique city with a fascinating past and a promising future.  For the first time in three decades, the world’s largest collection of authentic materials and documents will be on view in The Salem Witch Trials 1692  giving visitors the chance to explore rarely-exhibited documents from PEM's Phillips Library alongside objects from the museum's vast collection to learn the true stories of the tragedy as told through the voices of those directly involved. Presented in 26 vignettes that show why Salem, Massachusetts is so extraordinary,  Salem Stories  will feature more...

By combining rare and visually arresting works by graphic designers from around the world along with related memorabilia such as lobby cards, film props, costumes and electric guitars into a very artful presentation that depicts how movie publicity campaigns have drawn in audiences throughout the 20th century, Daniel Finamore, the Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art & History at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, has definitely achieved the museum's goal of  “... looking for the sort of material that provides unexpected encounters with art, unexpected emotional responses to art, and things that people don’t necessarily expect to see in a museum." Wait? What? Did that say electric guitars? Yep! It did. Electric guitars. In a museum exhibit. Which totally makes sense as the awesome collection of horror and sci-fi film posters used to create It's Alive! belong to heavy metal guitarist Kirk Hammett who, in his life outside of avid movie art coll...