Danvers

Book excerpt: From their introduction in the late nineteenth century, picture postcards have been a souvenir staple in every American community. These practical, yet collectable mailers promote local businesses and tourism, and celebrate historic and scenic localities. Danvers, known as Salem Village during the infamous 1692 witch-hunt, became an independent town in the 1750s. By the twentieth century, local boosters spotlighted the town's rich architectural heritage, local institutions, and vibrant business district by producing a variety of postcard views. Ancient saltbox houses associated with the witchcraft days, eighteenth-century gambrel-roofed dwellings that sheltered Revolutionary War patriots, the mansion occupied by famed poet John Greenleaf Whittier, and the Danvers Insane Asylum, a majestic state-operated facility, were frequent postcard subjects. This book samples the best of Danvers's twentieth-century postcard heritage.