Susanna's Adventures in Time: July 2018

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Salem, Massachusetts : Part 2 18th Century to The Gilded Age

Salem, Massachusetts

Part 2: 18th Century to The Gilded Age

Civil War Zouave soldier and a pirate oh my!

In the 1700s pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd sailed the waters around Salem. This troubadour tells us of their adventures.

During the Revolutionary War Salem of course sided with the American patriots. Salem citizens fought off the British and kept them from stealing all the gunpowder and merchants sent a letter declaring themselves to be loyal to the patriot cause. Sound familiar? After the war, merchants began sending ships all over the world to trade for china and tea in China, spices in India, pepper in Sumatra. By the 1790s Salem became the 6th richest city in the United States!

Salem soon had many wealthy and middle class families. Salem women cultivated intellectual thought, started schools, and helped the immigrants while men fought proudly in the Civil War.

By the end of the 1800s the Gilded Age had arrived. New technology meant people go farther away from home than ever before. They sailed on great steamships to England and Europe. People in other countries sailed back as immigrants. Many immigrants came to Salem to work in the mills. Textile mills made the fortunes of many New England families.

By the 19teens and 20s, wealthy girls traveled on giant steamships. Many were named after queens. These ships were known as floating palaces. They offered every luxury for travelers even dogs!

In the 1910s I might choose to sail on the Cunard Line or the White Star Line. I think I will choose White Star.

Entering the embarkation doors...

Doors from the first class embarkation hall on France 1911
French Lines collection on display at the Salem Maritime Museum

Honor and Glory Crowning Time on display at the Salem Maritime Museum

The White Star Line featured fancy marble decorations. I'm here on The Olympic standing by the grand staircase. This clock decoration is called "Honor and Glory Crowning Time" (1911) It represents human triumph over time and space. This victory is represented by the ocean liner. (My guardian asks the other big people if this looks familiar?"

I think I will go visit the first class lounge now.

Fragment of a panel from the first class lounge on Titanic.
Courtesy of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia Museum
On display at the Salem Maritime Museum

This Beaux Art panel decorates the wall of the first class lounge. Again my guardian asks if it looks familiar? No. Well how about these doors?

Oak panelling from the communication gallery on the France, about 1912
by Atelier Georges Rémon of Paris
on display at the Salem Maritime Museum

Time for a little fresh air. I head up to deck and take a seat in a wooden child size lounge chair. (The others are from Kit's time). By now ocean liners are not keeping children shut up in our suites with our nannies. We are official paying customers! There is even talk of building a children's play room.

I arrive in France. How beautiful!

By friend Kit's time ocean liners had lots of fun features for kids.

Nanea's friend Donna traveled on a steamship when she moved from San Francisco to Hawaii!

I hope you enjoyed my ocean liner adventure! My guardian has lots more to tell you and more photos you might like to see. Check out her blog somewhere else online. She calls it "Archives, Libraries and Museums" because she's boring and old and the time travel magic doesn't work for her.

Salem, Massachusetts : Part 1 Salem Beginnings (17th Century)

Salem, Massachusetts:

Part 1 Salem Beginnings (17th Century)

Hello friends,

It has been a long time since I told you about my time travel adventures. My guardian has time to unlock her computer for me now so I can show you what I have been up to.

Follow me to Salem, Massachusetts on the North Shore near Boston. Salem was founded in 1626 by Roger Conant who left England because of his unusual religious beliefs. ("Roger Conant? Wait a minute! He's my ancestor!," claims my guardian.) Roger Conant founded a fishing village. He called it Naumkeag.

Roger Conant

In 1628 the Massachusetts Bay Colony sent an official governor named John Endicott.

John Endicott was kind of snobby and mean. Roger Conant left to go found another town nearby. John Endicott stayed. He was the official Puritan governor. The English settlers now called their village "Salem." That means "place of peace" in Hebrew.

Salem was in the backwoods of nowhere on Massachusetts Bay. Most people lived in cabin like houses.

The houses were made from wood boards with shingle roofs. Inside the walls were lined with grass plants. If you were lucky you had a window with a wooden shutter than closed over it.

Kids didn't have a lot of time to play. They were busy working. In winter evenings people might play games like these.

Kids learned to read from a wooden paddle covered with a piece of animal horn. I think you all recognize this object! Puritans thought it was important to know how to read the Bible so they made sure everyone could at least read some. Not everyone could write.

The governor did not like the simple houses common folk lived in. He moved a much bigger house from Cape Ann nearby. This house is much bigger, fancier and has glass windows!