As kind of a follow-up to that big commemorative year of 2020, during which I focused on Salem women’s history every Saturday in commemoration of the centennial suffrage anniversary, I have spotlighted notable Salem women on social media every day during this Women’s History Month of March. So this is a summary post of that effort as we near the month’s end. My primary motivation was to feature women who are seldom featured on social media because there is no visual image attached to them: no photograph, no portrait, not even a romantic Victorian illustration. Social media is of course a very visual medium, so a lot of people from the past, women and men, get left off and out. My impression, however (and it is just an impression, not a scientific survey), is that there are 10 photos of men for every 1 of women once we get into the photographic age, however, so I think women get left out more than men. Before photography, all bets are off, but visual depictions are likely a bit more gender-neutral as only the elites get “pictured”. I think about this lack of visualization, mostly because I see the same images of Salem women popping up all the time, mostly illustrations from books or from English pamphlets of the poor women accused of witchcraft in 1692. These women seem to be the exclusive representatives of Salem women in the seventeenth century, so I was also motivated to feature some some Salem women from that century who actually had nothing to do with the Salem Witch Trials. To represent women who have no visual representation, from that century and after, I had to be a bit creative: essentially I created “silhouettes” from prints or photographs of contemporary women. There was a lot of image doctoring, I admit freely! I just wanted to get these women’s stories out there. Below are some collages of my posts as well as a few individual ones: they were accompanied by relatively short narratives and I really want to dig deeper into some of these women’s stories here. I’d love to hear who intrigues you, and who is missing!
I don’t know what the very impressive chairwomen of the Salem Sanitary Society, who worked tirelessly to collect and send supplies to Salem soldiers at the front(s) during the Civil War, really looked like, nor Salem High School student Margaret Tileston, whose great diaries at Harvard really capture schoolgirl life in the 1880s. But we there are extant images of Salem Normal School’s (now Salem State University) first Japanese student, Kin Kato, and the extraordinary Anna Northend Benjamin, the first female war photojournalist in American history: I can’t believe these women, and so many women, have been lost to (in) history. After more than a decade of blogging and an entire manuscript on Salem history, I thought I knew a bit about it, but no, there’s always much more to learn.
March 27th, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Nellie Sterns Messer was a part of my life! She was an “influencer” at Tabernacle Church, serving on varied boards. She often wrote and directed plays, tableaus involving young people of the church, Sunday school, PIlgrim Fellowship, etc. I was part of several of her productions! She also served as he director(?) of the Ropes Memorial Mansion. She wrote the script the guides memorized. It was my first job and I’ll bet I can still recite the story of the house and its tenants. I began working there at 13. She never married–referred to herself as a “maiden lady”–never an “old maid!”
March 27th, 2024 at 2:39 pm
Oh, I’m so glad to hear this, Carol! Thank you so much for commenting. In my social media posts, I definitely included her Ropes roles, but not her activities at the Tabernacle. Wish I could find a real picture!
March 27th, 2024 at 12:58 pm
Nellie Sterns Messer was part of my young life in Salem. She was active in many aspects of Tabernacle Church–often involved in the writing and production of plays, tableaus, etc. I was often part of these productions. (I still remember my lines from at least one of them!) “Jerusha, sew your sampler fine says haughty old aunt Kate–with every stitch upon the line and pattern intricate.” Later she was the director (?) of the Ropes memorial mansion. My first job was as a guide there at the age of 13. Miss Messer wrote the script and I’ll bet I can still recite the story of the Ropes and Orne families. She never married and referred to herself as a “maiden lady”– never an “old maid!”
March 27th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
I was delighted to see that you included Harriet (Hannah) Frances Osborne, the artist. She was my grandfather, Maurice Machado Osborne’s aunt. There is some ambiguity about her first name, both Harriet & Hannah seem to have been used, but she signed her will as Hannah Frances, and her family’s stone in Harmony Grove, names her as Hannah Frances. Actually she died in 1914 while in Sugar Hill, N H, of peritonitis. Interestingly her NH Death Record lists her as H. Francis Osborne, male. Did the recorder make a mistake due to her middle name, or was she cross dressing? A Mabel Deane of Fitchburg petitioned in probate court to be appointed administratrix of the estate of Harriet F. Osborne. Was Mabel Harriet’s lover/partner?
March 27th, 2024 at 2:41 pm
Wow! Yes, I was confused by the Hannah/Harriet discrepency, but went with Harriet as that seemed to be on most legal documents. Will look into Mabel Deane—that’s always tricky!
March 29th, 2024 at 1:26 pm
I can sympathize. I recently had to go out to a local cemetery to take a photograph of the only image (known to me) of a woman I was mentioning in a class. There was a photograph embedded in her headstone, and it’s badly damaged after more than a century.
March 29th, 2024 at 6:20 pm
I think this is a big public issue, Brian–I’m surprised there’s not more writing about it.