Salem's witches, worth a trip

 

The Salem Witch Trials 1692  was on exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts which featured era pieces, belongings of the participants, and paintings, several shown below. Another witch exhibition is set at the Peabody this fall, Sept. 18, 2021 through March 20, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie 

The entrance to the Peabody Essex Museum where popular witch exhibitions enlighten museum goers/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What has captured the attention of these children at the Peabody Essex Museum?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

It was the Examination of a Witch, 1853 by Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1883), Peabody Essex Museum/Photo by Mark Sexton and Jeffrey R. Dykes

Detail of Examination of a Witch, 1853 by Tompkins Harrison Matteson, Peabody Essex Museum, which the artist depicted 160 years after the event. Note the animal-like claws of the hands of the woman in red kneeling on the right as she examines a victim whose skin eruptions gave the witch police proof the undressed woman was evil. The woman in center with the red kerchief has the look of a witch herself as she points to imperfect skin on the back of the young woman. Behind her, a helmeted soldier holds a spear used to hold back curious crowds. At the Peabody exhibition, a similar spear hung on the wall and may be seen above in the photo of the children on the floor. Mr. Matteson based his painting on an event in Boston which occurred in a public tavern, a common location for these testimonies.

William Drage (c. 1637-1669), Daimonomageia: A Small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases from Witchcraft, and Supernatural Causes, 1665, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum. Mr. Drage was an English physician and apothecary whose thinking about witches came to America with settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Cures for witchcraft included hanging rosemary, ivy, and mistletoe inside the house. You can forget about kissing under the mistletoe, unless ..../Photo by Patricia Leslie

This book, Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, 1677, was written by John Webster (1611-1682), a witchcraft skeptic who nevertheless believed some could practice the craft naturally using the sciences of astronomy, botany or alchemy. (The spotlight in the left corner is from overhead lights.) From the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

These are the walking sticks belonging to George Jacobs Sr., an elderly man put to death by testimony from his granddaughter, Margaret, who recanted...too late.  They were a gift in 1918 to the Peabody Essex Museum from Allen Jacobs, presumably related to Mr. Jacobs. In the background is a rendition of Mr. Jacobs's trial by Tompkins Harrison Matteson.  (Please see below.)/ Photo by Patricia Leslie

The granddaughter of George Jacobs, Sr. sentences her grandfather to death in Tompkins Harrison Matteson's Trial of George Jacobs, Sr. for Witchcraft, 1855, which the artist painted 163 years after Mr. Jacobs's trial and execution.  Although Margaret recanted her testimony, she was too late, and her grandfather, shown in the lower right with his hands extended, begging for mercy, was led to the gallows. The woman with her outstretched arms to the right of Margaret may be her mother, Rebecca, also accused of witchcraft. Peabody Essex Museum, Gift of R. W. Ropes, 1859/Photo by Mark Sexton and Jeffrey R. Dykes

Detail from Tompkins Harrison Matteson, Trial of George Jacobs, Sr. for Witchcraft, 1855, Peabody Essex Museum, Gift of R. W. Ropes, 1859.

On the wall at the Peabody is a quote from Thomas Maule's 1695 Truth Held Forth And Maintained/Photo by Patricia Leslie

It was not until 2016 that Proctor's Ledge was confirmed by researchers from the University of Virginia to be the site of the hangings of 19 "witches.' Scientists were led to the place by the findings of Salem resident Sidney Perley who, in 1921, questioned the long-identified summit of Gallows Hill on the outskirts of Salem as the hanging place. Mr. Perley said his research pointed to what is called, for unknown reasons, Proctor's Ledge which is at the base of the hill. He was proven right.

A dedication of the memorial was held July 19, 2017, the 325th anniversary of the hangings of Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes.  Millions of Americans are related to the "witches" hung at Salem, including my own children, related by their father to Rebecca Nurse.

The 19 victims' names are carved in stone in a semi-circle around a "single oak tree, as a symbol of endurance and dignity," according to the city's website. The crooked sign in the upper left is a reminder to wear masks during covid times/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Proctor's Ledge, the memorial to the witch victims in Salem, MA/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

Proctor's Ledge, the memorial to the witch victims in Salem, MA, where from the left, victims' names are Bridget Bishop, hung on June 10, 1692, and Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, and Rebecca Nurse, the latter four hung on July 19, 1692. Outside the picture is the name of Sarah Wildes, also hung on July 19, 1692/Photo by Patricia Leslie

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Proctor's Ledge stones are dedicated, from the left, to the memories of George Jacobs, Sr., whose granddaughter, Margaret betrayed him, John Proctor, Sr., and John Willard, all of whom were hung on August 19, 1692/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Proctor's Ledge, the memorial to the witch victims in Salem, MA/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Proctor's Ledge, the memorial to the witch victims in Salem, MA/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A day ends in Salem, Massachusetts which my sister says is a haunted and crowded place at Halloween/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Just when you think you've heard it all,
a Michigan politician calls female competitors in his state, "witches" to be burned at the stake.  

Like me, he must have been the only person older than 50 years who lives east of the Mississippi River who has not visited Salem, Massachusetts, the location of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and 1693 where 25 persons were killed or died as the result of mass hysteria. 

Nineteen of the witch victims were hung; one man, Giles Corey, was literally "pressed" to death with heavy weights as punishment for his "craft"; five victims died in jail.

One was an infant, Mercy Good, who never knew life outside the prison where she was born and where she died before her mother, Sarah Good, was hanged.

Mercy had a sister, Dorothy, who was also confined to the jail with inadequate circulation, a dirt floor, and crude sanitary facilities. Dorothy was incarcerated for more than eight months, chained to prison walls and although she wasn't put to death like her mother, family members said she suffered from the effects of her imprisonment for the rest of her life. 

Dorothy was five years old when she was jailed.

The witchcraft scare in Salem began with the telling of tall tales by a slave, Tituba, to young girls, confined to their home prisons during the harsh winter and having nothing better to do than to listen and spin yarns of their own.

As a child of about nine years old, I recall stumbling across this sad chapter in American history in an encyclopedia which I never forgot. I can still recall the illustrations and as an adult, the absurdity of it all and man's inhumanity to man, much like Ron Weiser.

Thanks to an excellent display at the Peabody Essex Museum right in the heart of Salem, visitors can become better educated about the hysteria, rumors, and seizures which can overtake crowd behavior and expand. The Peabody is hosting two exhibitions about the witches this year, with remnants and artifacts from the trials and the people involved.  

I was at Salem about the time Ron Weiser was spewing his female hatred like a snake. For him, I highly recommend a visit to Salem and to the Peabody Essex Museum to see this fall's shows which may cause Mr. Weiser to shed his snake skin and rethink his poison and what it can become. 

May I be so bold to suggest "GoFund Me" for his visit with excess funds to be donated to female candidates? 

The Peabody Essex Museum was founded in 1799, only 37 years after the trials, and prides itself as the country’s oldest continuously operating museum.

On a different note, at Turner's Seafood Restaurant, my pal, Maureen, and I had an excellent dinner outdoors in 37 degrees, but the wind was calm, we were dressed warmly (made comfortable by the restaurant's nearby standing heaters), and the warm chocolate lava cake provided its own pleasures.  

Salem is about 30 minutes north of Boston's Logan Airport.

What: The Salem Witch Trials, Sept. 18, 2021 through March 20, 2022.

When:  Open Thursday-Sunday, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Where:  Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tickets:  

Adults, $20; seniors (65 and older), $18; students (with i.d.), $12, youth 16 and under, Salem residents, and members, no charge. 

For more information:  978-745-9500, 866-745-1876 and visit pem.org. 

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Press \\ Press Releases

PEM announces fall exhibition schedule

 

Olney's 'Crucible' is unforgettable

Olney Theatre Center presents Arthur Miller's The Crucible now through May 20, 2018.

A theater classic, The Crucible, is a play to see before you die, or to see again, especially during this trial of national turmoil, and I'm glad to find Web lists agree with me on its importance.

Mia Rilette (Betty Parris), Guadalupe Campos (Mercy Lewis), Dani Stoller (Abigail Williams), and Yakima Rich (Susanna Walcott) in The Crucible at Olney Theatre Center (Photo: Stan Barouh)

The show, the Tony Award winner for Best Play of 1953, is presented at the Olney Theatre Center for the first time and chosen, the artistic directors told me, in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election.  

When a recent poll says the majority of Republicans believe the press is the enemy of the American people (quoting Donald Trump), it's time to sit up and take notice that the freedoms we value are under attack, like they were when Joseph McCarthy attacked persons he deemed suspicious, two who were executed.

Scott Parkinson as Reverend John Hale and the girls of Salem. (Photo: Stan Barouh)
   
Arthur Miller (1915-2005), the Crucible writer and usually considered one of the world's greatest playwrights, places a mid-1950s American tragedy in the context of an earlier crime, the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 and 1693 when 20 were executed, their deaths stemming from hysterical young girls.

In his metaphor, Mr. Miller skillfully weaves the girls' frenzy as substitutes for those which gripped the nation during the McCarthy years of the 1950s and the "Red Scare." After The Crucible debuted and largely because of it, Mr. Miller was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify. Various organizations banned and boycotted his plays.

 Shpend Xani (Judge Hathorne), Dylan Fleming (John Willard), Dani Stoller (Abigail Williams), Chris Genebach (John Proctor), Jonathan Atkinson (Ezekiel Cheever), and Miranda Rizzolo (Mary Warren) in The Crucible at Olney Theatre Center (Photo: Stan Barouh)

He began working on his play the day he heard his good friend and director, Elia Kazan, at HUAC name actors and playwrights, including Miller, who Kazan thought had ties to leftist causes. (Read a fascinating account of their relationship and their back-and-forth productions here.)

Although Mr. Miller claimed that all his characters in The Crucible were actual persons from Salem, he blended some of their personalities and changed ages for others to better accommodate his script which took him about a year to write, according to a 1996 article for the New Yorker.

Scott Parkinson (Reverend John Hale) and Lilian Oben (Tituba) in The Crucible at Olney Theatre Center (Photo: Stan Barouh)

Olney's director Eleanor Holdridge deserves credit for the strong, persuasive performances she draws from the 19-member cast, notably, Dani Stoller as Abigail Williams, Chris Genebach (John Proctor), Scott Parkinson (Rev. John Hale), Rachel Zampelli (Elizabeth Proctor), and Paul Morella (Deputy Governor Danforth), the latter deserving special recognition for his realistic portrayal of a despised person who quickly conjures up hate from the audience.
 
To introduce the show and set the tone, scenic designer Andrew R. Cohen crafted angled pieces of wood to hang mid-air in stark fashion to greet theatergoers. Minimalist visuals throughout the performance permit the dialogue to dominate, as it should, including the second act when
ugly, low-hanging fluorescents give the stage a prison-like environment and grilling room, as the accused hear and argue their sentencing.

Applause to the graphic designer for the excellent logo for the play and to the choreographer, Kelly Crandall d'Amboise, whose dancing girls and antics never miss a beat in original composition, and none from director's notes, artistic directors Jason Loewith and Jason King Jones told me.

Excellent period costuming by Sarah Cubbage, effective lighting by Nancy Schertler, and original music by Patrick Calhoun all contribute to the success.
  
Other Crucible cast members are Jonathan Atkinson, Guadalupe Campos, Brigid Cleary, Dylan Fleming, Jessica Lefkow, Craig MacDonald, Bolton Marsh, Lilian Oben, Yakima Rich, Caroline Rilette, Mia Rilette, Miranda Rizzolo, Michael Russotto, and Shpend Xani.

Dori Beau Seigneur was wig and hair consultant, and John Keith Hall, production stage manager.

Today in Africa, "witch camps" exist, used to rid communities of older women who practice "witchcraft," reminding me of similar places in our own United States, like the Weston State Hospital in Weston, West Virginia, now called the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum, a convenient place for men to dump the wives and "witches" they wanted to expel from their lives. The hospital closed in 1994, but you may tour it now (highly recommended).

Wikipedia defines crucible as "a severe test or trial; alternately, a container in which metals or other substances are subjected to high temperatures."

There was a whole lot of shoutin' goin' on.

What: The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Where: Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD 20832.

When: Now through May 20, 2018, Wednesday through Saturdays at 8 p.m., weekend matinees at 2 p.m., a 2 p.m. matinee Wednesday, May 9, and a sign-interpreted performance on Thursday, May 10, at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets: Begin at $47 with discounts for groups, seniors, military, and students.

Ages: Recommended for ages 13+ due to mature themes, extreme emotions, actions, and political allegories.

Duration: 2 hours and 45 minutes (which flies by) and one intermission

Refreshments: Available and may be taken to seats

Parking: Free and plentiful on-site

Post-show discussions: After matinees on May 12 and 19

For more information: 301-924-3400 for the box office or 301-924-4485

patricialesli@gmail.com

**

'Sally Mann' has left the building, headed to ...

R. Kim Rushing, b. 1961, Sally with camera, 1998, Collection of Sally Mann

Sally Mann:  A Thousand Crossings is going to Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Paris, and Salem, Massachusetts, after a successful three-month run at the National Gallery of Art. (Please see tour dates below.*)

If you missed the big exhibition in Washington, here are a few photos from the show organized by the National Gallery and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.

The title for the presentation comes from a poem by John Glenday, "Landscape with Flying Man" with this line: "The soul makes a thousand crossings, the heart, just one."**

Sally Mann, b. 1951, Easter Dress, 1986, Patricia and David Schulte

Despite appearances in the scene above, it was not spontaneous but rehearsed numerous times, until Sally Mann could get it just right , according to the label copy. In the picture her daughter, Jessie, wears a white Easter dress worn by Sally Mann and her grandmother, Jessie's namesake.

Sally Mann, b. 1951, Blowing Bubbles, 1987, High Museum of Art, Atlanta

It's a really big show, about 110 photographs taken by Ms. Mann of her beloved South and its complexities, beauty, hauntings, and landscapes which her cult adores and who filled the galleries every time I went to the National Gallery which explains why I was never able to get a seat to see the continuously running film about her at work.  

Sally Mann, b. 1951, Jessie at Nine, 1991, National Gallery of Art, Washington 

Sally Mann, b. 1951, Deep South, Untitled (Valentine Windsor), 1998, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

This is all (above) that remains of the Windsor Mansion, the largest antebellum Greek Revival house in Mississippi. Built between 1859 and 1861, it had four stories, 25 rooms, 25 fireplaces, and a basement with a school room, dairy, and supply rooms. It is likely that Union troops did not torch it in the Civil War, as they did so many others, because they used it as a hospital. 

After the war, Mark Twain stood in Windsor's observatory and viewed the Mississippi River, observations he used in Life on the Mississippi. Later, when a guest dropped a cigarette in the house on the afternoon of February 3, 1890, the ensuing fire and flames burned it to the ground.  

Windsor Mansion has been the set of several movies, including Raintree County (1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff.  See it today on Highway 552, 12 miles from Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Sally Mann, b. 1951, Battlefields, Cold Harbor (Battle), 2003, National Gallery of Art, Washington

The battle of Cold Harbor (above) was fought in 1864 ten miles from Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.

The exhibition spanned several galleries and was divided by five themes: Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains.  I find Mann's photographs neither inspirational nor uplifting and they speak of a languid, bygone era which no longer exists, save the sad landscapes which continue to wither.

A friend in Blacksburg asked me if the show was, she paused before she said "depressing," we both, familiar with Mann's typical subject matter.  Yes, I said, and bleak, like they usually are.  

Or, that's how they strike me.  How do they strike you?  Perhaps, it's the black and whiteness. But for the younger generation, and heavens know, that's the only market (!) for everything, it's what they seem to want, a reflection of their existence.

*Tour dates are:
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, June 30 - Sept. 23, 2018 
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Nov. 20 - Feb. 10, 2019
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Mar. 3 - May 27, 2019
Jeu de Paume, Paris, June 17 - Sept. 22, 2019
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Oct. 19, 2019 - Jan. 12, 2020.

A catalogue with 320 pages and 230 illustrations is on sale for $45 at the National Gallery of Art. 

Audio and video of the show with interviews are available at the National Gallery's website. 

**"Landscape with Flying Man"

I read about him that was given wings.

His father fixed those wings to carry him away.

They carried him halfway home, and then he fell.
And he fell not because he flew

but because he loved it so. You see
it's neither pride, nor gravity but love

that pulls us back down to the world.
Love furnishes the wings, and that same love

will watch over us as we drown.
The soul makes a thousand crossings, the heart, just one.

By John Glenday from Grain (London: Picador, 2009)

patricialesli@gmail.com

Women composers featured at free noontime concert, June 6, St. John's, Lafayette Square

Composer, organist, and teacher Margaret Vardell Sandresky of Winston-Salem, N.C.

Selections by three women composers are the program for a free concert Wednesday, June 6, at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square beginning at 12:10 p.m.

The three composers are  
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) from Poland, Clara Schumann (1819–1896) from Germany, and a living artist, Margaret Vardell Sandresky (b. 1921) from Salem College, Winston-Salem, N.C. 

The U.S. Air Force Strings under the direction of
First Lieutenant Philip Emory will perform Symphony for String Orchestra (Bacewicz), followed by organist Ilono Kubiaczyk-Adler to play Prelude and Fugue in B-flat major, Op. 16 No. 2 (Schumann) and Dialogues for Organ and Strings (Sandresky).

Organist Ilono Kubiaczyk-Adler



 
Dr. Kubiaczyk-Adler began studying piano at age 8 in her native Poland and started organ studies at 16. A winner of national and international competitions, she holds a doctorate in musical arts (Arizona State University), two master's degrees, and professional diplomas. She is the associate music director at All Saints Episcopal Church in Phoenix.

Lt. Emory is a flight commander based in Washington, who began violin studies at age 4. He holds a master's degree in conducting from the University of South Carolina and has traveled the world as an artist.

                     

St. John's Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

Wednesday's performances will conclude St. John's First Wednesday series for the year.  Look for an announcement of next year's artists and save first Wednesdays on your calendar.

St. John's was founded in 1815 and is known to Washington residents as the yellow church at Lafayette Square. It's often called the “Church of the Presidents” since beginning with James Madison, who was president from 1809 to 1817, every president has attended services at the church, and several have been members. A plaque at the rear of St. John's designates the pew where President Abraham Lincoln often sat when he stopped by the church during the Civil War.

Benjamin Latrobe, known as the "father of American architecture" and the architect of the U.S. Capitol Building and the White House porticos, designed St. John's Church in the form of a Greek cross.

The church bell, weighing almost 1,000 pounds, was cast by Paul Revere's son, Joseph, in August, 1822, and was hung at St. John's that November where it has rung since. Wikipedia says two accounts report that whenever the bell rings on the occasion of the death of a notable person, six male ghosts appear at the president's pew at midnight and quickly disappear.

Dolley Madison, wife of President Madison, was baptized and confirmed at St. John's, according to the National Park Service, which calls the church "one of the few original remaining buildings left near Lafayette Park today."

For those on lunch break Wednesday, food trucks are located at Farragut Square, two blocks away.

What: First Wednesday Concert featuring music by women composers by organist Ilono Kubiaczyk-Adler and the U.S. Air Force Strings 
 
When: 12:10 p.m., June 6, 2018

Where: St. John’s, Lafayette Square, 1525 H Street, NW, at the corner of 16th, Washington, D.C. 20005

How much: No charge

Duration: About 35 minutes

Wheelchair accessible

Metro stations: McPherson Square (White House exit), Farragut North, or Farragut West

For more information: Contact Michael Lodico at 202-270-6265 or Michael.Lodico@stjohns-dc.org or 202-347-8766
 

patricialesli@gmail.com