The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming

This exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem investigates the factors that led to the infamous witch trials that took place in colonial Massachusetts in the late 17th century (18 September–20 March 2022). The museum holds the world’s largest collection of historical materials relating to the trials – a number of these, including court documents and the personal effects of those involved in the cases, are on view here. Also displayed is the work of two artists with ancestral links to the accusers and the accused: the late couturier Alexander McQueen, whose 2007 Fall/Winter collection was created in memory of his ancestor Elizabeth How (one of the first to be condemned and hanged), and the photographer Frances F. Denny, whose series Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches aims to reclaim the term ‘witch’. Find out more from the Peabody Essex Museum’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here  

Statement of James How Sr. for Elizabeth How, 28 June 1692. Phillips Library, on deposit from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Photo: © Peabody Essex Museum

Shine, (New York, New York) (2007), Frances F. Denny, from the series Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America. Courtesy the artist and ClampArt, New York

Bottle fragment (late 17th century), English artist. Photo: Kathy Tarantola; © 2020 Peabody Essex Museum