Salem Witch Trials Documents Leaving Peabody Essex Museum

SALEM, MA — Hundreds of documents from the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, which have been held at the Peabody Essex Museum's Phillips Library in Salem for the past four decades, will be transferred to the Judicial Archives at the Massachusetts State Archives facility in Boston beginning this week.

The PEM and Supreme Judicial Court announced the start of the 527-piece document collection delivery beginning on Thursday.

The museum, which featured the "Salem Witch Trials 1692 Exhibition & Virtual Tour" in 2021, will continue to share resources and teachings of the Salem Witch Trials through its 17th-century collections, ongoing exhibitions, lectures, website and public programs.

"PEM is honored to have provided a safe and accessible repository for these invaluable and legendary court documents while the SJC worked to increase its archival capacity," said Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM's Executive Director and CEO. "It is through the close study of authentic materials that we are able to humanize and more deeply understand the experience of the 25 men, women and children who lost their lives during the Salem Witch Trials."

The documents will now reside in the recently expanded and modernized archive facility in Boston under the oversight of the Supreme Judicial Court, which was founded in the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials.

The PEM recently concluded a comprehensive digitization project to make the Salem Witch Trials documents, which it had held on a "temporary" basis since 1980, available to researchers around the world through its website.

"We are grateful to PEM for its capable stewardship of these invaluable documents and gratified that the state can now welcome the Salem Witch Trials documents home to the Judicial Archives," Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd said. "The Court deeply appreciates the extraordinary public service that the museum has provided in caring for this unique collection for more than 40 years.

"We look forward to future partnerships between the SJC and PEM to help keep the teachings of the Salem Witch Trials alive."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)