America’s oldest continuing museum the Peabody Essex Museum outlines the rich maritime heritage of Salem with over 2 million art works housed in one of New England’s largest museums.
This prestigious museum was established in 1799 after Salem’s merchants and sea captains initiated a maritime collection, which today is renowned for its quality and depth. The museum’s collections are gathered to celebrate the nature of the sea, commemorate important maritime events and acknowledge the importance of the sea to the history of Salem .
The rich collection of artefacts at the Peabody Essex Museum is outstanding. The museum is renowned for its collection of Native American art, which is among the oldest ongoing collections in the US. The collection includes contemporary native American Art, viewing native American art in a new light.
While many of the museums other items have come from wealthy merchants and adventurers brought from the orient and recounting Salem’s maritime historic trading links with China and Japan. These include a huge temple bell from the 1657 Quing Dynasty, Shuzhi Period and prints from the 18th & 19th Centuries.
Paintings in this maritime gallery and the East India Marine Hall range from depictions of the whaling days of Salem, the mutiny on the bounty, carousing sailors and trading in the tropics, while the collection also includes decorative ship figureheads.
The Peabody Essex Museum also has an exceptional collection of American Art, much from the New England and Essex County Regions. The Barbara Weld Putnam Gallery consists of furniture and decorative pieces from the federal era, adapting European with New World themes. The collection features an installation recreating Cleopatra’s Barge, America’s first private ocean going yacht that was built here in Salem in 1814. The museum also houses a youthful portrait of Salem’s most famous son, Nathaniel Hawthorne, by Charles Osgood in 1840.
The Peabody Essex Museum is a must for any visit to Salem and there is no better place that pieces together the town’s importance to New England culture.
Location:
East India Square, Salem Massachusetts
Opening Times:
Open Daily: 10am-5pm
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day
Admission Fees:
Adults: $13
Seniors: $11
Under 16: Free
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