A century ago, Columbus Day was not just an excuse for a three-day weekend; it was a serious national holiday demanding intense preparations on the part of local officials all over the country. I found two little descriptive articles about the Columbus Day celebration here in Salem in the digital archives of the Essex Institute Historical Collections, a long-running (1853-1993) journal of local and regional history that ceased publication after the merger of the Essex Institute and the Peabody Essex Museum. Both articles are from 1892, a particularly intense Columbian year due to the 400th anniversary of the voyage and the upcoming Columbian Exposition of 1893.
The first article is a virtually a minute-by-minute account of the Columbus Day celebration in Salem, including all the performances given by schoolchildren in every Salem school as well as the speeches (word for word) given by their various principals. These speeches all stress bravery (the “flat earth myth” established earlier in the century by Washington Irving is certainly reinforced), patriotism, and in an odd sort of way, diversity: Columbus was the first immigrant! After a day full of activities around town, the celebration of Columbus in Salem ended with a huge parade, in which every civic institution and group in the city marched. How interesting that the big October parade in Salem now is in recognition of Halloween rather than Columbus.
The other article is all about preparations for the Columbian Exposition on the part of officials of the city and the Essex Institute. Each state at the Exposition was to have its own representative house full of exhibits, and though a reproduction of the eighteenth-century Thomas Hancock house by the Boston architects Peabody & Stearns was going to be the Massachusetts House (rather than a distinctive “Salem House” in the seventeenth-century or McIntire style), the city of Salem was to be responsible for assembling an exhibition for the main reception room, so there was much discussion of what to send and how to send it. A selection of “portraits, paintings of old houses, Salem views suitably bound in albums, and historical relics” was chosen, put on display at W.H. Gardener’s Store on Essex Street for public approval, and then sent off to Chicago. Another difference in emphasis in the past as compared to the present: the focus was clearly on representing colonial Salem rather than global Salem.
The Massachusetts State Building at the Columbian Exposition of 1893, Winterthur Library
Addendum: Apparently Christopher Columbus was embraced by all immigrant groups, not just Italian-Americans–a song sheet from 1893.
October 9th, 2011 at 8:17 am
Columbus discovered the ‘new world’ in 1492, he discovered the Cayman Islands in 1503.
October 9th, 2011 at 8:45 am
I love how you do the research and then write your findings in such a palatable form. And Colombus did not actually discover the Americas did he? Evidently he had an old map that got him here. So it is an odd celebration in a way. History is extraordinary in its Chinese whispers. I know you have commented on this before.. and how did the Colombus Parade become a Halloween Parade? c
October 9th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
I downloaded the Salem 1892 Columbus Day report from Google Books some months ago> It was a great time capsule which I “data-mined” in several ways. For my research into the Salem FD, it provided a list of all apparatus & drivers. The listing of wagons entered into the commercial division of the parade seem to be a complete listing of all businesses owning wagons. The Franco-American Inst. of Salem got the section about the Naumkeag School’s French speaking children’s participation.
In the months following, I have found many extremely informative bits of information in many of the varied trade publications of the day. The Google search engine is a bit erratic, but what it has produced is pure gold to this local history buff.
Two other gems are reports from 1873 & 1910 on Salem’s tenements. The 1873 report caused quite a bit of a ruckus as it compared house keeping standards among Salem many ethnic groups. That;s a story for another day.
October 9th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I agree, Nelson; it’s a great source for a lot of reasons.