1892 Perron map SALEM & LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, #33 |
Nice map titled Salem et Lynn, from wood engraving with fine detail and clear impression. Overall size approx. 21.5 x 16.5 cm, image size approx. 12 x 10.5 cm. From: Les Etats Unis, volume no. 16 of La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, 19 volumes (1875-94), great work of Elisee Reclus. Cartographer is Charles Perron.
Salem
city, Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts,
U.S. It lies on Salem Bay Harbor (an inlet of Massachusetts Bay), 16 miles (26
km) northeast of Boston. Salem was incorporated as a town in 1626 by Roger
Conant, who emigrated from Cape Ann, 14 miles (22 km) northeast. The first
Congregational Church in America was organized there in 1629, and Roger
Williams, founder of Rhode Island colony, served as an early pastor. The town's
name is probably the shortened form of the biblical Jerusalem (“City of Peace”).
Salem's early history was clouded by religious intolerance that led to the
witchcraft trials of 1692. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it developed as
one of New England's leading maritime and shipbuilding centres, and during the
American Revolution (1775–83) and the War of 1812 its port served as a
privateers' base. After the decline in foreign commerce, due mainly to the
shallowness of its harbour, the community turned to the production of textiles,
leather, and shoes. The economy is now based on health care, financial services,
tourism, retail trade, and higher education; diversified light manufacturing is
also important.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born (1804) in Salem and made it the setting for several
of his novels, notably The House of the Seven Gables, which immortalized the
house built (1668) by Captain John Turner. On the house's grounds are several
other historic buildings that were moved to the site, including Hawthorne's
birthplace (about 1740), the Hathaway House (1682), and the Retire Beckett House
(1655). Hawthorne used the home of his wife's family, Grimshawe House, as a
setting in several works as well. He was employed (1846–49) as a port surveyor
and worked in the Custom House (1819), which, together with the old wharves, is
maintained within the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Other outstanding
buildings include the John Ward House (1684), the Witch House (1642; where Judge
Jonathan Corwin lived during the witchcraft trials), the Pickering House (1651),
and the Federal-style masterpieces designed by Samuel McIntire, the “architect
of Salem,” notably the Pierce-Nichols (1783) and Gardner-Pingree (1804) houses.
Collections of art and history are displayed at the Peabody Essex Museum. The
campus of Salem State College (founded in 1854 as Salem Normal
[teachers-training] School) includes an art gallery, an observatory, and The
Chronicle of Salem, a 50-sequence mural. The city's Pioneer Village is a
reconstruction of early Salem. Inc. city, 1836. Pop. (2000) 40,407; (2010)
41,340.
Lynn
city, Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on Nahant Bay and
Lynn Harbor (inlets of Massachusetts Bay), just northeast of Boston. Settled in
1629 as Saugus, it was incorporated as a town in 1629 and renamed in 1637 for
Lynn Regis, England. Tanning and shoemaking were early colonial activities, and
the first iron-smelting works in the American colonies was built there in 1643.
After the introduction of the shoe-sewing machine in 1848 and factory production
methods, it became the leading shoe centre in the United States. A more
diversified economy has prevailed since the 1930s, and services (mainly health
care and telecommunications) and trade are now major sources of employment. Lynn
is the site of extensive manufacturing facilities of the General Electric
Company, which produces jet engines and electrical instruments in the city.
Recreational areas include Lynn Woods, an unusually large municipal park with
wilderness areas. The city has a campus of North Shore Community College (1965).
The Mary Baker Eddy House, where the Christian Science movement originated in
the 1860s, is in the adjacent town of Swampscott. Lynn is connected to the
peninsular resort town of Nahant by Lynn Beach, a 1.5-mile- (2.4-km-) long sand
spit. Inc. city, 1850. Pop. (2000) 89,050; (2010) 90,329.