“Crazed in Her Understanding”: Women’s Woes During the Salem Witch Trials
2024-03-15 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual Event
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 one comes across a woman who is described as mentally unwell. What does it mean to be “crazed in her understanding,” “melancholy,” or “one part off the moon”?
In this presentation, we will discuss several women involved in the Salem witch trials who appear to have struggled with mental health issues. We will consider how these records paint a picture of each of these seventeenth-century women, providing clues about their personal struggles.
Join us on Friday, March 15st at 6:00 pm EST for this free virtual lecture. The presentation will be recorded and shared on the Salem Witch Museum website and YouTube page for future accessibility. No registration is required.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84433996229?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode: WHM

Author Signing with Janice Thompson
2024-05-24 12:00 - 16:00 | The Salem Witch Museum, 19 1/2 Washington Square North, Salem, MA, 01970, United States
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 Dry Tinder: A Tale of Rivalry and Injustice in Salem Village. The tale is based on the true story of the Towne sisters, three innocent women who were falsely accused of witchcraft in 1692. Told through the eyes of Sarah Cloyce, the only one of the trio who escaped execution, the book focuses on some of the complex issues that were prevalent in the decades leading up to the tragedy, among them boundary disputes, religion, wars, and disagreements with Mother England.
The signing will take place from 12 noon to 4 pm on our front plaza.
Dry Tinder is available in our online store at: https://salemwitchmuseum.com/product/dry-tinder-a-tale-of-rivalry-and-injustice-in-salem-village/

Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials: Separating Fact from Fiction Marilynne Roach, Rachel Christ-Doane, and Tricia Peone
2024-08-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Virtual Event
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 a transatlantic audience. Mather has often been portrayed as an instigator of the trials and a witch hunter. But what exactly did he do, and why has he been such a polarizing figure?
Join us for a virtual roundtable discussion with Salem witch trials historian Marilynne Roach (author of The Salem Witch Trials and Six Women of Salem), Rachel Christ-Doane (Director of Education at the Salem Witch Museum), and Tricia Peone (Project Director of New England’s Hidden Histories at the Congregational Library & Archives).
The discussion will focus on Cotton Mather’s writings about witchcraft, misconceptions about his role in the Salem witch trials, and his legacy today.
The event is free to all, but registration is required via this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V21PJveNS3CLbi9yetg0IA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about the webinar.
For more information, please email programs@14beacon.org.

SPEAKER BIOS
Marilynne Roach is a writer, researcher, illustrator, and lecturer who has so far written nine books on topics ranging from Thoreau at Walden to the Salem witchcraft trials. She was an associate editor on the definitive Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt and a member of the Gallows Hill Project that proved the correct location of the 1692 hangings (included in Archaeology Magazine’s list of the world’s ten most important discoveries of 2016). Roach’s The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege is considered the bible of the Salem witch trials.
Rachel Christ-Doane is the Director of Education at the Salem Witch Museum. She holds a BA in History from Clark University and MA in History and Museum Studies from Tufts University. As Director of Education she trains museum docents, works with students and teachers, creates educational programming, oversees exhibit curation, and engages in a range of research. Her recent publications include, “The Salem Witch Trials Memorial: Finding Humanity in Tragedy” (Smithsonian Folklife, 2022) and “The Untold Story of Dorothy Good, Salem’s Youngest Accused Witch” (American Ancestors, 2023).
Tricia Peone is the Project Director of New England’s Hidden Histories at the Congregational Library & Archives. She previously worked at Historic New England, where she was a research scholar for the Recovering New England’s Voices project. She has also previously worked as a university lecturer teaching classes on the Salem witch trials, early New England, and public history, and as a researcher for cultural heritage organizations. Her scholarship focuses on early modern magic and witchcraft and her work on these subjects has appeared in journals, books, blogs, and on radio and television. She holds a PhD in history from the University of New Hampshire with a specialization in the early modern Atlantic world and history of science.

The Wonderful Woman Behind Oz
2025-03-26 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
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 age for the witch, transforming these monstrous figures of old into good, kind, and beautiful characters.
While we will never know what precisely inspired Baum to include good witches in his story, this presentation will discuss the influence of one powerful close connection, Matilda Joslyn Gage. Though her name is unfamiliar today, Gage was an important leader of the first wave feminist movement, a trailblazing human rights activist, and the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum.
Join us on Wednesday, March 26th at 6:00 pm EST for this free virtual program about the fascinating woman behind Oz. This presentation will discuss the life and work of Matilda Joslyn Gage, her relationship with her famous-son-in-law, and the effect of Baum’s work on the evolving perception of the witch.
The presentation will be recorded and shared on the Salem Witch Museum website and YouTube page for future accessibility. No registration is required.
Webinar access here passcode MJG.

Our Founding Mothers and Fathers: Revolutionary War Connections to the Salem Witch Trials
2025-08-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Virtual Event
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 were the founding fathers and mothers of our country. They were themselves descended from the earliest settlers, who were establishing a new country and took the biblical instruction “be fruitful and multiply” to heart.
We often find fascinating connections between the Salem witch trials and the Revolutionary War generation, particularly the one most often referred to as our “Founding Fathers.” With Rev250 celebrations in full swing, this presentation will share some of these interesting stories, including that of Reverend George Burroughs, the Putnam family of Salem Village, Reverend John Hale of Beverly, and Abigail Faulkner of Andover.
Join us on Thursday, August 7th at 6:00 pm EST for this free, virtual program.
Registration is required for this event. Please register here.

Witch Panic! Massachusetts Before Salem
2025-09-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
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 Witch Panic! Massachusetts Before Salem, an exhibition at the Springfield Museums. A married couple living in Springfield, the Parsons faced accusations of witchcraft in 1651, over forty years before the events of Salem. Listen to their neighbors’ testimony and explore how evidence came from aspects of everyday colonial life. Uncover how their alleged witchcraft involves one of the first banned books in English North America and learn how the edition on display connects Springfield to the Salem Witch Trials. The exhibit Witch Panic! Massachusetts Before Salem is on display at the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History through November 2, 2025.
Registration is required for this event. Please register here.

Profoundly Vulnerable: The Story of Four Witchcraft Accusations
2026-03-05 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
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 were in particular danger. We will focus on four women targeted during the Salem witch trials. Rachel Clinton, Sarah Good, Margaret Scott, and Ann Dolliver each had promising beginnings in the New World but, through no fault of their own, found themselves in desperate circumstances.
This free virtual program will be hosted on Thursday, March 5th at 6:00 pm ET. Registration is required for this event. Please register here.

Enchanted Plants: An Exploration of Common and Uncommon Plants in Folklore and Magic
2026-05-07 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
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 of the Witch’s Garden to discover poison plants that have shaped history. We’ll gallop on to meadowlands, forests, and finally the sea. From the ordinary apple to the fabulous foxglove, we’ll discover plants that have played a significant role in fairy tales, folklore, and history.
This free virtual program will be hosted on Thursday, May 7th at 6:00 pm ET. Please register here.

Our Founding Mothers and Fathers: More Revolutionary War Connections to the Salem Witch Trials
2026-09-17 13:00 - 14:00 | Virtual Event
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 and took the biblical instruction “be fruitful and multiply” to heart.
It is fascinating to consider the many connections between the Salem witch trials and the Revolutionary War generation, particularly the one most often referred to as our “Founding Fathers.” Part II of our Rev250 lecture series will focus on four more connections, including witchcraft skeptic Robert Calef, Ipswich court clerk Thomas Wade, condemned witch Mary Bradbury, and accuser Bathsheba Pope.
Join us on Thursday, September 17th at 1:00 pm for this free, virtual program.
Registration is required for this event. Please register here.
