Salem Witch Trials
A guide to resources concerning the Salem Witch Trials at the BPL and beyond.
Postcards from Salem
Click on images to see full-size
The Salem Witch
Thatched houses, Pillory and & Stocks
Old Pickering House (built in 1660)
House of the Seven Gables (built in 1668)
Hawthorne's Corner in Parlor, House of Seven Gables
Old Hathaway House, Turner Street (built in 1682)
See more postcards from the BPL's collection via Digital Commonwealth
Beam from Salem Gaol
Original beam from Salem Gaol, where many of the accused were held. Currently on display at the Witch Dungeon Museum in Salem, MA.
Photo taken by BPL employee, 13 November 2016.
Digitized Orginal Documents
- Salem Witch Trials Documentary ArchiveFrom the University of Virginia, provides digital images and transcriptions of documents relating to the trials including court testimony, maps, books, letters, and journals among other sources.
- Cornell University Library Digital Witchcraft CollectionA selection from Cornell's Witchcraft Collection, including books and other materials relating to the trials.
- Salem, MA Digital ArchiveIncludes old property and city/town records going back to the 1600s
Useful Websites
- Salem Witch TrialsBrief video overview from the Travel Channel
- Famous American Trials: The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692Provides an overview of the trials including links to other useful site, a chronology of important events, maps and other images, and online trivia games.
- Salem Witch MuseumLocated in Salem, the museum offers travel information for various sites related to the trials as well as basic information about the events.
- History of Massachusetts, Salem Witch TrialsFrom a blog run by a freelance journalist with an interest in history, contains detailed entries about people, places, and events related to the trials including lists of sources for each entry.
Online Multimedia
- Unobscured Podcast, Season 1Ongoing series hosted by Aaron Mahnke, part of the How Stuff Works network. Season 1 focuses on the trials.
- A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials: One town's strange journey from paranoia to pardonArticle for Smithsonian.com by Jess Blumberg
- Salem Witchcraft HysteriaInteractive online role-playing exhibit from National Geographic
- PBS Secrets of the Dead: The Witches CurseCompanion website to episode of Secret of the Dead about the trials
Online Books
- Salem witchcraft : with an account of Salem Village, and a history of opinions on witchcraft and kindred subjectsBy Charles W. Upham, originally published in 1867. Also available in hard copy in the Research Services Department.
- A brief and true narrative of some remarkable passages relating to sundry persons afflicted by witchcraft, in Salem Village: : which happened from the nineteenth of March, to the fifth of April, 1692.Collected by Deodat Lawson, former minister of Salem Village.
- Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692 : together with some account of other witchcraft prosecutions in New England and elsewhereBy Winfield S. Nevins, originally published in 1892. Includes illustrations of related buildings that are no longer standing.
- Narratives of the witchcraft cases, 1648-1706By George Lincoln Burr, originally published in 1914.
Archives and Other Physical Collections
- Danvers Archival Center at the Peabody Institute LibraryHolds a collection of materials related to the trials, particularly early writings on the subject. Website also features information about the trials.
- Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex MuseumHolds the records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
- Massachusetts Historical Society,Collections include a volume of legal documents related to the trials as well as personal papers of Samuel Sewall, Cotton Mather, and others who were involved.
- Massachusetts State ArchivesVolume 135 of the Massachusetts Archives Collection contains official copies of records relating to the trials and petitions to the General Court to recover expenses for those who were imprisoned and executed.
- Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ArchivesHolds various records relating to the trials and the imprisonment of accused persons.