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...

On a recent cold winter's day, my cousin Amy, oldest daughter Amanda, and I set out for the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts and the idyllic New England town of Stockbridge to pay a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum  which was founded in 1969 and dedicated to "the enjoyment and study of Rockwell’s work and his contributions to society, popular culture, and social commentary." The museum traces it roots to the late 1960s, when Rockwell, a native New Yorker who moved from Arlington, Vermont to Stockbridge in 1953 and lived his last 25 years there, established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy by placing his works in the custodianship of the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society, later to become Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge. For its first twenty-four years, the museum was located at the Old Corner House on Stockbridge’s Main Street, a building that Rockwell and other townspeople helped preserve and which provided 3,000 square feet ...