Studying the lives of colonial women can be a difficult undertaking. Ferreting out basic information, from a birthday to a maiden name, is often impossible. This is particularly challenging when...
We’re delighted to welcome author Janice Thompson for a book signing at the Salem Witch Museum on Friday, May 24, 2024. Thompson’s first novel is a historical fiction work titled...
Cotton Mather is perhaps most famous for his role in the Salem witch trials. He was also the minister at Boston’s North Church (Second Church) and a prolific writer with...
In 1900, America was introduced to both its first fairytale and its first good witches. L. Frank Baum’s iconic children’s story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ushered in a new...
The American Ancestors organization once estimated 15 million people can trace their family line back to the Salem witch trials. We often tell visitors that the English colonists of 1692...
Salem’s witch trials were the last frenzy of witchcraft accusations in colonial New England. But what was the first? Join us for a free virtual lecture with Elizabeth Kapp, Curator of History at the Springfield Museums, on Thursday, September 25th at 6:00 pm EST. Discover the story of Mary Lewis and Hugh Parsons featured in...
Join us on March 5th for our first virtual lecture of 2026, “Profoundly Vulnerable: The Story of Four Witchcraft Accusations,” presented in celebration of the 39th annual Women’s History Month. There were many reasons why a woman in seventeenth-century New England might be accused of witchcraft, but those who were alone, poor, and, perhaps, quarrelsome...
From the tangled forest to the garden gate, join folklorist, rotten botanist, and author Varla Ventura for an exploration of some of the world’s most enchanted plants. We’ll start in the Queen’s Garden of cultivars, then amble over to the Cottage Garden where ordinary plants offer extraordinary stories. Carefully we’ll slip through the iron gates...
Each year we meet hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals who can trace their family line back to the Salem witch trials. We often tell visitors that the English colonists of 1692 were the founding fathers and mothers of our country. They were themselves descended from the earliest settlers, who were establishing a new country...
