Salem Women's
History and
Business Community
History and
Business Community
Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum
134 Essex Street — Open to the public
The original Plummer Hall was constructed to house the Salem Athenæum and the Essex Institute in 1856 and 1857, from funds donated by the philanthropist Caroline Plummer (1780–1845). Her will stipulated that the “sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be appropriated to the purchasing a piece of land in some central & convenient spot in the city of Salem, & for building thereon a safe & elegant building of brick or stone, to be employed for the purpose of depositing the books belonging to said Corporation, with liberty also to have the rooms thereof used for meetings of any scientific or literary institutions, or for the deposit of any works of art, or natural productions.”1
Today, the Phillips Library is a rare book and manuscript repository that started collecting in 1799. The library’s holdings consist of over four hundred thousand volumes and more than a mile in linear feet of manuscript material. It can support research in a wide range of areas, but it is particularly well suited to provide the primary sources needed to investigate the role of women in society.
Because it contains both printed and manuscript collections, library resources can document the work not only of women writers from Salem and the surrounding Essex County, but also the less visible activities of women associated with the arts, charitable giving, and other social and general reform movements.
From the works by Lydia Louisa Ann Very to the organizational papers of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, the library’s wealth of early American imprints, diaries, journals, shipping logbooks, newspapers, tracts, sermons, broadsides, account books, and company and family papers, is an invaluable resource for experienced and novice researchers alike.
Sources
1 Will of Caroline Plummer, March 9, 1845.
The original Plummer Hall was constructed to house the Salem Athenæum and the Essex Institute in 1856 and 1857, from funds donated by the philanthropist Caroline Plummer (1780–1845). Her will stipulated that the “sum of thirty thousand dollars shall be appropriated to the purchasing a piece of land in some central & convenient spot in the city of Salem, & for building thereon a safe & elegant building of brick or stone, to be employed for the purpose of depositing the books belonging to said Corporation, with liberty also to have the rooms thereof used for meetings of any scientific or literary institutions, or for the deposit of any works of art, or natural productions.”1
Today, the Phillips Library is a rare book and manuscript repository that started collecting in 1799. The library’s holdings consist of over four hundred thousand volumes and more than a mile in linear feet of manuscript material. It can support research in a wide range of areas, but it is particularly well suited to provide the primary sources needed to investigate the role of women in society.
Because it contains both printed and manuscript collections, library resources can document the work not only of women writers from Salem and the surrounding Essex County, but also the less visible activities of women associated with the arts, charitable giving, and other social and general reform movements.
From the works by Lydia Louisa Ann Very to the organizational papers of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, the library’s wealth of early American imprints, diaries, journals, shipping logbooks, newspapers, tracts, sermons, broadsides, account books, and company and family papers, is an invaluable resource for experienced and novice researchers alike.
Sources
1 Will of Caroline Plummer, March 9, 1845.
