In the first ten years of its settlement, the town of Newbury witnessed murders, kidnappings, earthquakes and a plague of caterpillars. The century that followedmarked by religious conflict, Indian uprisings and public scandal proved no less challenging to the early Puritan community. In 1640, Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop noted, As people increased, so sin abounded. But through the turmoil, Newburys citizens harnessed the regions abundant natural resources and developed a thriving community. Author Bethany Groff introduces the compelling personalities that shaped the history of Old Newbury up until 1764, when Newburyport received its independence from the mother town. From the scandalous exploits of Dr. Henry Greenland to the courageous and sacrificing acts of founding families like the Emerys, Dummers and Pikes, A Brief History of Old Newbury provides a captivating glimpse into the verve of this early New England town.

West Newbury was incorporated in 1819 after breaking away from the early settlement of Newbury, which was founded in 1635 by English livestock investors. From its very beginning, the town was a small farming community, later boasting many orchards, nurseries, and truck farms. The community was home to the last covered bridge in Essex County and can also lay claim as the birthplace of the comb industry. In 1886, a horsecar line from Haverhill opened up the community to surrounding areas. In 1897, horsecars were replaced with electric cars, the tracks of which extended to Newburyport. In the mid-1950s, the community grew with the opening of Route 95. Today, West Newbury retains its historic charm, and residents are passionate about its past.

The Lowells of Massachusetts were a remarkable family. They were settlers in the New World in the 1600s, revolutionaries creating a new nation in the 1700s, merchants and manufacturers building prosperity in the 1800s, and scientists and artists flourishing in the 1900s. For the first time, Nina Sankovitch tells the story of this fascinating and powerful dynasty in The Lowells of Massachusetts. Though not without scoundrels and certainly no strangers to controversy , the family boasted some of the most astonishing individuals in America’s history: Percival Lowle, the patriarch who arrived in America in the seventeenth to plant the roots of the family tree; Reverend John Lowell, the preacher; Judge John Lowell, a member of the Continental Congress; Francis Cabot Lowell, manufacturer and, some say, founder of the Industrial Revolution in the US; James Russell Lowell, American Romantic poet; Lawrence Lowell, one of Harvard’s longest-serving and most controversial presidents; and Amy Lowell, the twentieth century poet who lived openly in a Boston Marriage with the actress Ada Dwyer Russell. The Lowells realized the promise of America as the land of opportunity by uniting Puritan values of hard work, community service, and individual responsibility with a deep-seated optimism that became a well-known family trait. Long before the Kennedys put their stamp on Massachusetts, the Lowells claimed the bedrock.

Newburyport was once the most dangerous harbor on the East Coast and one of its most prosperous. Local captains and sailors led the nation to battle during the American Revolution and founded the U.S. Coast Guard. They sent vessels to Bombay, the gold rush and the farthest reaches of the world. Author Dyke Hendrickson explores the perfection of the clipper ship, the city's famous Federalist mansions and the bold adventures from the Age of Sail. Follow the men and women of Newburyport into battle, into gales and into fortune--or ruin.

Presents an historical analysis of the Salem witch trials, examining the factors that may have led to the mass hysteria, including a possible occurrence of ergot poisoning, a frontier war in Maine, and local political rivalries.

To Make Their Own Way in the World is a profound consideration of some of the most challenging images in the early history of photography. The fifteen daguerreotypes--made in 1850 by photographer Joseph T. Zealy--portray Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty, men and women of African descent who were enslaved in South Carolina. Since 1976, when the daguerreotypes were rediscovered at Harvard University's Peabody Museum, the photographs have been the subject of intense and widespread study. To Make Their Own Way in the World features essays by prominent scholars who explore everything from the photographs' historical context and the "science" of race to the ways in which photography created a visual narrative of slavery and its effects. Multidisciplinary, deeply collaborative, and with more than two hundred illustrations, including new photography by contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems, this book frames the Zealy daguerreotypes as works of urgent contemporary inquiry. Copublished by Aperture and Peabody Museum Press