As with many cities and towns in Massachusetts—and in the case of Salem, perhaps even more so—local patriotism is so strong that most materials for the study of local history have remained close to where they were created. Since soon after our founding, however, the Massachusetts Historical Society has collected and published materials about Salem.

Join Peter Drummey, the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Stephen T. Riley Librarian, for a virtual tour of personal papers (letters and diaries), manuscript records, publications, portraits, photographs and artifacts ranging from the time of the witchcraft hysteria through Salem’s golden age as during the height of the India Trade on to the industrial city of 100 years ago at the time of the Great Fire of 1914 and the influenza epidemic in 1918-1919.