Second Sunday Chowder & Lectures
at Salem’s Oldest House
Ed. note: I’m crossing over right now, folks, from my job as travel writer to my job as Executive Director of the Pickering Foundation in Salem, Massachusetts. I’m so pleased about the lunch and lecture series that we’ve put together for the Winter 2014 season, that I want to share it with all of you. If you think you’re going to be anywhere near #Salem on the Second Sundays of January – April, please call and make a reservation to be here. You won’t be sorry!
The Pickering House, located at 18 Broad Street in Salem, is hosting a four-part lecture series beginning in January 2014. The new “Second Sunday Chowder & Lecture Series” promises to provide a fine way to shake off those winter blues and gain new insights into the history of one of Salem’s most accomplished families.
An informal chowder lunch will begin at 12:30 and our speakers will kick-off at 1:00. The fee is $20 per lecture for members of the Pickering Foundation and $25 for non-members. All are welcome and encouraged to come and see the newly refreshed home. Reservations are required; attendees should either call (978) 744-4777 or send an e-mail to pickeringhouse1@gmail.com.
Here’s the line-up of speakers, topics, and speaker bios:
January 12
Jim McAllister: Salem in the Mid 17th Century
We’ll start our series with a profile of Salem life at the time the Pickerings were settling into their new home in the Broad Fields. Jim’s talk will look specifically at the layout and topography of the town, and land use. Also to be covered will be the political and religious landscape, and important current events
February 9
Charles Newhall: Becoming “Native” American: John Pickering, Lexicography, and the New Republic
John Pickering VI (1777-1846) learned to read and spell using Noah Webster’s The American Spelling Book (also know as the Blue-Backed Speller) and quickly took to philology. After time spent at Harvard and then at the Court of St. James, he entered into the law and politics as the New Republic was testing political factions. In his spare time (!) pursued lexicographical work with precision and passion. That avocational career brought publication of numerous books on words and led him to the presidency of both the American Oriental Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His intellectual journey provides us with a window into the life of the mind of a post-Revolutionary American, a second generation United States citizen, and a sixth generation Pickering hard at work becoming “native.”
March 9
Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell: The Other Renaissance Minister in 18th Century Salem: The Rev. John Prince
While the Rev. William Bentley often receives a great deal of attention because of his famous diaries that chronicled life here in Salem during the 18th and early 19th centuries, there were other sophisticated “divines” roaming these parts. John Prince was the Minister of the First Church in Salem, a Patriot during the Revolutionary War, and an amateur scientist and astronomer. Some of his instruments are now owned by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
April 13
Linda Dini Jenkins: Pickering Poets — A Celebration of National Poetry Month
Henry Pickering (1781 – 1838), son of Colonel Timothy, was a failed banker, an art connoisseur and a poet whose works appeared in the Evening Post and Good Housekeeping, among others. And his niece, Mary Orne Pickering (daughter of John VI) — in addition to being a devoted journalist and historian and the author of The Life of John Pickering — was also a poet. Let’s look at some of their work and then hear from you. Bring a poem to share — yours or someone else’s.
Speaker Biographies
Jim McAllister
Since founding Derby Square Tours in 1983, Jim McAllister has conducted countless tours of, and lectured extensively about, the history of Salem and Boston’s North Shore. Through the international Elderhostel program Jim has taught more than 250 courses on local history, architecture and art. He has also served as an historic consultant to many local organizations and institutions.
A now retired local history columnist for the Salem News from (1999-2013), Jim has written or co-written two books about Salem. The Morristown, New Jersey native has appeared on Chronicle, The History Channel, Home and Garden TV, National Public Radio, and many other media outlets. In 2008 he was the recipient of both the Essex National Heritage Commission’s first ever Heritage Hero Award and the regional Storyteller Award given by the North of Boston Visitor and Convention Bureau.
Charlie Newhall
Charles L. Newhall is a history teacher at St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, MA, and a historian of the Early National Republic. His current project focuses on the relationship between New Englanders and Liberia.
Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell
Jeff Barz-Snell is the current minister of the First Church in Salem and a local writer and activist. He has been studying Salem’s “Great Age of Sail” for several years and some of the personalities that made this period in Salem’s history so fascinating. He has masters degrees from Boston University School of Theology and Tufts University School of Urban and Environmental Planning.
Linda Dini Jenkins
An avid poetry nut and travel writer, Linda is the author of Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband (named by journeywoman.com as one of the “Ten travel books I’d give my girlfriends”) and Journey of a Returning Christian: Writing into God. Her poetry has appeared in Tampa Review, South Florida Poetry Review, Peregrine, Bay Windows, Vermont Voices and Poeti italo-americani. Her travel writing has appeared in Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dream of Italy, AAA’s Home & Away, and Healthcare Traveler. She blogs at www.travelthewriteway.com and is Executive Director of the Pickering Foundation.
The Pickering Foundation cultivates an appreciation of one family’s role in the American experience, which is manifested in the preservation of the historic home for the enrichment and enjoyment of the community. The Pickering House is open to the public on Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm from June through November. For more information, visit www.thepickeringhouse.org.
Buon viaggio!
Linda Dini Jenkins is a card-carrying Italophile, travel planner, freelance writer, and amateur photographer. Travel is her passion, so writing about her travels just comes naturally. She hopes all her travelers find a way to express their joys, surprises, and fears as they travel and gives every traveler a nifty journal to help smooth the way. Learn more…
Charles L. Newhall is a history teacher at St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, MA, and a historian of the Early National Republic. His current project focuses on the relationship between New Englanders and Liberia.
Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell
Jeff Barz-Snell is the current minister of the First Church in Salem and a local writer and activist. He has been studying Salem’s “Great Age of Sail” for several years and some of the personalities that made this period in Salem’s history so fascinating. He has masters degrees from Boston University School of Theology and Tufts University School of Urban and Environmental Planning.
Linda Dini Jenkins
An avid poetry nut and travel writer, Linda is the author of Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband (named by journeywoman.com as one of the “Ten travel books I’d give my girlfriends”) and Journey of a Returning Christian: Writing into God. Her poetry has appeared in Tampa Review, South Florida Poetry Review, Peregrine, Bay Windows, Vermont Voices and Poeti italo-americani. Her travel writing has appeared in Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dream of Italy, AAA’s Home & Away, and Healthcare Traveler. She blogs at www.travelthewriteway.com and is Executive Director of the Pickering Foundation.
The Pickering Foundation cultivates an appreciation of one family’s role in the American experience, which is manifested in the preservation of the historic home for the enrichment and enjoyment of the community. The Pickering House is open to the public on Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm from June through November. For more information, visit www.thepickeringhouse.org.
Buon viaggio!
Linda Dini Jenkins is a card-carrying Italophile, travel planner, freelance writer, and amateur photographer. Travel is her passion, so writing about her travels just comes naturally. She hopes all her travelers find a way to express their joys, surprises, and fears as they travel and gives every traveler a nifty journal to help smooth the way. Learn more…
An avid poetry nut and travel writer, Linda is the author of Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband (named by journeywoman.com as one of the “Ten travel books I’d give my girlfriends”) and Journey of a Returning Christian: Writing into God. Her poetry has appeared in Tampa Review, South Florida Poetry Review, Peregrine, Bay Windows, Vermont Voices and Poeti italo-americani. Her travel writing has appeared in Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dream of Italy, AAA’s Home & Away, and Healthcare Traveler. She blogs at www.travelthewriteway.com and is Executive Director of the Pickering Foundation.
The Pickering Foundation cultivates an appreciation of one family’s role in the American experience, which is manifested in the preservation of the historic home for the enrichment and enjoyment of the community. The Pickering House is open to the public on Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm from June through November. For more information, visit www.thepickeringhouse.org.
Buon viaggio!
Linda Dini Jenkins is a card-carrying Italophile, travel planner, freelance writer, and amateur photographer. Travel is her passion, so writing about her travels just comes naturally. She hopes all her travelers find a way to express their joys, surprises, and fears as they travel and gives every traveler a nifty journal to help smooth the way. Learn more…
