By Jeff Burns
My
wife and I made a quick trip to New York City during winter break, and since it
was February, we decided to make it as indoors as possible, concentrating on
museum visits. We got a good deal on a hotel on 7th Avenue, near
Times Square and conveniently located near several subway stops. We
packed so much into our few days that we were exhausted; we needed a vacation
from our vacation. There’s just so much
for history lovers to do and to see!
So,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the American Folk Art
Museum will just have to wait until a future trip, but we did spend a Morning at
the Museum – the American Museum of Natural History.
Like most museums in NYC, it opens late, 10 AM, but my advice is to get there
early. When the doors opened this day,
there were probably a hundred people gathered at the door and lines going down
the street in both directions. As the
morning passed, it got extremely crowded.
While
none of the exhibits came to life while we were there, there is so much life to
see in he museum that you could spend days if you wanted. There are the dinosaurs, of course, including
the brand new titanosaur. There are the halls and halls of animal, plant, and
mineral specimens. There are the
anthropological and archaeological collections that represent cultures from
around the globe. It’s always a thrill
for a teacher to see objects up close that they’ve seen in textbooks. While
it’s true that most of the exhibits and spaces look they haven’t changed in a
hundred years, the AMNH is a classic.
The
afternoon was for MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art again, crowded. Is
there any place in NYC that’s not? We’re not generally modern art fans, so we
made a quick trip through the most current exhibition, the highlight of which
was a video look of recent transgender Eurovision song contest winner Conchita Wurst gesturing slowly and looking
into the camera. However, MOMA has one of the greatest collections of works
representing the late 19th century and 20th century: impressionism, post impressionism,
expressionism, abstract, surrealism, cubism, dada etc. If you know works by Dali, Picasso, Chagall,
Duchamp, Kandinsky, Miro, Van Gogh, Monet, Warhol, or Brancusi, chances are
that they are from the permanent collection of MOMA. I incorporate a lot of art
in my history classes, and art is a major area of study for my quiz bowl team,
so it’s a real thrill for me to see these great works in person.
By Jeff Burns
I
wasn’t sure what to expect when I visited Salem Massachusetts for the day. Of course, I have seen the episodes of
“Bewitched” (There is a statue in town
of actress Elizabeth Montgomery as witch Samantha Stevens.), and I knew Salem
was the only city in America with an official witch (Laurie Cabot, proclaimed
so by Governor Michael Dukakis in the 1970s).
I’ve also read several books about the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s,
and there are a couple of titles on my “to-read” list as I write this blog.
While vacationing in Massachusetts, I knew that I had to see for myself whether
I’d find the historic or the cheesy.
Long
story short: I found both. Let’s get the
cheesy out of the way first. Yes, there are numerous psychics, tarot readers,
and self-proclaimed witches who have set up shop, many along Pickering Wharf, a
quaint and picturesque shopping and dining area. (Cabot herself opened the first such shop in
the early 1970s but has recently retired.) There are also haunted houses and “witches’
dungeons” where live and wax figures
frighten tourists. Then, there’s the
Salem Witch Museum, which probably attracts most tourists to Salem. Located in a former church on Salem Common,
the museum purports to present the story of the hysteria and trials. The sanctuary has been converted into a
theater-in-the-rectangle for the presentation.
Above the visitors’ heads, there are 10 or so 3D scenes recreating
elements of the story with mannequins, narration, and sound and lighting
effects. While much of the history is
sound, you get the sense that the melodramatic (one scene depicts the devil)
script hasn’t changed in fifty years.
When the show is over, visitors go to a small exhibit area for a
superficial docent talk about witchcraft trials and then the gift shop which
has a decent selection of books and an extensive collection of every cheesy
witch and magic related item of merchandise imaginable. Honestly, I’m not sure if I can recommend the
Salem Witch Museum; I kind of wish we had used that time elsewhere.
At Pickering Wharf
For
example, we could have visited the House of Seven Gables, the 17th
century museum that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work by the same name. It’s one of many house tours in Salem,
representing different eras in Salem’s long history. The Phillips House dates
to the 1800s. You might also see the Pickering House or the Ropes Mansion, just
to name a few. There are also guided and
self-guided walking tours available, focusing on the trials, Hawthorne, ghosts
and spirits, and other facets of Salem’s history.
If
you’re interested in maritime history, be sure to go to the National Park
Service Visitors Center for great information.
You can visit the Customs House, and Salem also boasts the New England
Pirate Museum.
The
highlight of our day in Salem, however, was the Peabody Essex Museum, which we didn’t even know existed. The
Peabody Essex is a fantastic art and cultural history museum that got its start
in the collections of objects brought home by Salem’s sea captains and sailors
who sailed the world. The collection of
Asian, African, and Native American artifacts is amazing. Asian export art is a
key part of the exhibits, and visitors can see the result of the meeting of
East and West. There is much to see, and
a visitor can easily spend hours here.
The PEM also oversees 22 of the historic houses and structures open for
visits in Salem.
We only saw a small bit
of Salem, but we definitely fell under its spell and hope to get back there
someday.
