Danvers: From 1850 to 1899

Images of America: Massachusetts

by Richard B. Trask

In the mid-nineteenth century, the community of Danvers, Massachusetts, celebrated the 100th anniversary of its separation from Salem. Formerly known as Salem Village, Danvers had been the location in 1692 of an infamous witch hunt, and in the nineteenth century it still retained numerous historical ties to those early, traumatic times. In this marvelous new photographic history, the story of Danvers from 1850 to 1899 unfolds before our eyes through the medium of early American photography. Readers will gaze at the fresh, young faces of Danvers shoemakers and farmers turned soldiers, dressed in uniform and prepared to fight in the Civil War. The pocket villages of Danvers are revealed and illustrated both in images of structures forever lost and others now preserved as historic house museums. Also illustrated are many of the elegant estates occupied by such notables as poet John Greenleaf Whittier and Secretary of War William C. Endicott.

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This photographic and pictorial history of Danvers shows a side of Danvers that people can't see today. It's history as Salem Village is well documented but Danvers' 18th and 19th century past is largely lost thanks to fire and development.

This book shows a look at that past. I would have found it interesting even if I hadn't been hoping to find images that relate to my own family tree there. I didn't find those images but I still managed to learn something about the town whose past figures so prominently in my father's family's past.