ABOVE IMAGE: Andrew-Safford House Exterior Details. © 2016 Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM.
PEM’s Fireside Chat series features conversations between Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO, and a rotating group of guests. These conversations offer a peek into both our historic houses and the inner workings of the museum.
Hartigan recently sat down in PEM’s historic Andrew–Safford House, a Federal-style mansion overlooking the Salem Common, with Petra Slinkard, PEM’s Director of Curatorial Affairs and the Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles. The two chatted about the museum's plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Salem in 2026 and what visitors can expect. Below is an excerpt of their conversation.
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan: Hi everyone. I'm Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum. Welcome to another episode of Fireside Chats. Today, we're in PEM’s Andrew-Safford House at 13 Washington Square in Salem. This handsome building overlooks the Salem Common and helps anchor the museum's Essex Block of historic structures. The building's distinguishing columns reach three stories. A fun fact for our historic house aficionados: These columns were created from single giant pine logs, which were turned on a ship mast lathe. The interiors were bored out from top to bottom with a huge auger to prevent long-term shrinkage and cracking, something that certainly has proved worth the effort centuries later. Recently, PEM restored the house's front portico balustrade and shutters to keep the home in top condition. Today, we use the Andrew–Safford house for private event rentals, and this carriage house is home to a thriving cookie bakery called Goodnight Fatty.
Now I'm pleased to welcome Petra Slinkard to talk about how PEM plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Salem’s founding in 2026.
Welcome, Petra. I'm so glad you're here for this Fireside Chat. We're sitting here in Salem surrounded by history. You know, we're in a house that's more than 200 years old. We work for a museum that's 225 years old. Fortunately, we're not that old. (LAUGHTER) But, you know, those are important timeframes. But we're really here to talk about some major historic milestones. So what are they?
Andrew-Safford House, Salem, MA. Peabody Essex Museum, 2024. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
Petra Slinkard: Well, we live in a nation that is celebrating 250 years of independence this year. And of course, on the horizon, we have that major anniversary of the city of Salem, which is turning 400 years old.
Andrew-Safford House, Salem, MA. Peabody Essex Museum, 2024. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
Lynda: Yes, it's kind of hard to believe when you hear those things stated out loud. So, Massachusetts was obviously a key birthplace of the American Revolution, and people continue to come from all over the world to learn about the founding of the United States. What will our visitors find of interest that helps them connect to that in our galleries?
Petra: We have so much material on view at PEM. We have an embarrassment of riches. But I think more specifically, we have a really special ongoing collection installation focused on American and Native American art, called On This Ground: Being and Belonging in America. You will find an original Massachusetts Bay Charter, a document marking the beginning of American self-governance. Elsewhere in the museum, visitors will find American decorative arts on view in a number of different galleries. And you know, we really try to encourage people to see examples of American life lived both in the past and in the present. We have another installation, one in our Phillips Library gallery, focused on the great American novel Moby-Dick, and all of the different ways in which artists have envisioned that story. It’s really fantastic, and people have been enjoying it.
Chaim Ebanks, bookbinder, and Susan Ebanks, designer, of Exeter Bookbinders (Devon, England). Moby Dick: or, The Whale, published 1930. Custom binding in white Chieftain Goatskin leather with blind tooling, gilt lettering, and glass prosthetic eye, 2023. Purchase, Library Acquisition Fund, made possible by Arthur and Judi Rubin, 2023. Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum. PS2384.M6 E23 1930. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
Lynda: Hard to believe it wasn't a success during the author’s lifetime, but it's become so illustrated and so famous since. And I'm glad I can sit here and say I actually read it!
Chaim Ebanks, bookbinder, and Susan Ebanks, designer, of Exeter Bookbinders (Devon, England). Moby Dick: or, The Whale, published 1930. Custom binding in white Chieftain Goatskin leather with blind tooling, gilt lettering, and glass prosthetic eye, 2023. Purchase, Library Acquisition Fund, made possible by Arthur and Judi Rubin, 2023. Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum. PS2384.M6 E23 1930. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
Petra: It's amazing how many people have connected to that story. And of course, our PEM Reads series has been bolstering that as well. We have another exhibition on view related to American narratives: Bethany Collins, America: A Hymnal, which is a really powerful installation.
Lynda: I have found Bethany's work incredibly compelling, in part because it's so poignant and, quite frankly, really, really timely. Would you describe it for people who might not have a chance to see it?
Petra: So Bethany Collins, America: A Hymnal is really intended to be an immersive experience. It's quiet and powerful at the same time. When you enter the gallery, you see several benches lined up, similar to church pews at the front of the room. There's a case with a very special book, and it contains 100 different versions of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” which was written over 200 years ago. The songs are bound in chronological order, and I think maybe more surprisingly, each page's musical notes have been burned into the pages by a laser. The artist intended that when each page turns, the pages disintegrate.
Lynda: That's so counter to the usual museum expectation. But again, it goes to my point about why it's just so poignant.
Petra: Absolutely. The gallery space itself is filled with sounds of looping renditions of each version of the song. It creates this dissonance and this unity that you're experiencing simultaneously. We find that visitors are really transfixed by the experience.
Lynda: So, part of what you're bringing up is how that sort of experience can really invite people to time travel, if you will, between the past and the present. And that is something that we do try to do with all of our exhibitions and our collection installations: to give people different ways of thinking about where they are in the world, what the world was like before, what the world could be. How do you feel about that kind of conversation?
Petra: It's a really empowering approach, one that I am really proud that we do quite well at the museum. You know, it was one of the reasons that I was attracted to PEM in the first place. That power of narrative and storytelling and the way in which visitors can see life, how it was once lived, how life is being lived in the present tense. And, you know, we try to offer reflection for how life might be lived and seen in the future.
Lynda: That can help people think about their own stories.
Meanwhile, you're very hard at work planning all of the ways in which PEM is going to contribute to celebrating Salem 400+. So, what's that? What's that “plus” about?
Petra: I'm glad you asked, because it's a very important distinction. The plus references both the understanding of our rich Indigenous community and the activity that really took place in the Salem area even before 1626. The plus is also an invitation for people to envision their future.
We're developing a whole menu of programs to offer visitors throughout the year. This is a really great initiative to work on, because much of the work that PEM does is really cross-departmental and collaborative. I find that we do our best work when we're collaborative. Everything that we're going to be putting forward during 2026 as a museum is intended to be that. One of the things that we look to do is to reflect on the PEM collection and how we can draw out narratives.
For example, PEM has one of the largest footwear collections of any American museum. And we have this wonderful historic structure, the 18th-century “ten-footer” shoe shop that's on our Essex Street Block. We plan to activate that during the summer of 2026 by having an artist come and do a residency with us. She will be here for three months making contemporary boots and sharing stories on the history of shoemaking in New England, because that was where it really started here in the United States,
Lynda: Which I don't think many people are aware of.
Petra: Definitely not. And the plan is for the artist to go back and forth between the ten-footer and our Ward House, with an opportunity to go even deeper into some of the lesser-known, primarily women's, stories about contributing to the shoemaking industry from home.
Lynda: We think about mass production for shoes. To think that shoes were made at home is really quite special and intriguing, I think, for people. So I'm glad we're doing the residency, for sure, and then I think there's something happening in our Fashion and Design gallery?
Petra: Yes — we have a global collection, but for our 2026 rotation, we really wanted to hone in on Salem and Salem's history. The works of art that we are pulling for this rotation will occupy a range of time and a range of occasions for individuals who lived in Salem and made this place their home. We're excited to kick that off soon.
Lynda: I'll be interested to see if we wind up having any descendants from people who gave us any of the clothing or the accessories stand in the gallery and say, ‘Oh, my great-grandmother.’ Or maybe it would have been a great-great. It'd be fascinating to see, because that brings it into the present and shows our respect for what the community has contributed to the museum.
Petra: It would be great to have those kinds of reactions.
Lynda: It's more storytelling, and stories that we might not even be aware of yet.
Petra: People can look for updates on all of this exciting programming soon on pem.org. And I also just want to take a moment to reintroduce your PEM in an Hour tour. For anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to take their lunch break at PEM and tour the museum with your narration, Lynda, we're planning to do a similar version that really focuses on the fact that Salem's history is around every corner at the museum. All of that will be available to celebrate Salem 400+.
Lynda: Obviously, we've got a lot to look forward to. I thank you for leading the initiative to plan all of this, and I really just want to thank you for being here today for this version of Fireside Chats.
Petra: Thank you, Lynda. More to come!
In 2026, Salem 400+ will commemorate Salem’s quadricentennial while acknowledging the preexisting Indigenous community of the place once known as Naumkeag. This year of events will explore the opportunities and connections of Salem’s multifaceted history while crafting a vision for current and future generations. As the nation’s oldest continuously operating museum, PEM is actively participating in a number of ways to honor the lesser-known stories and offer behind-the-scenes insight into what makes the city so singular. Learn more about PEM’s involvement in Salem 400+.
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