Salem Witch Museum

10/16/2026

There are still openings for several fall floral workshops at the wonderful Helios Floral (located just down the street from our museum)!

Join us for an intimate afternoon inspired by the darker, more unexpected side of the October garden. We’ll embrace the season with rich burgundy and chocolate blooms, smoky foliage, twisting vines, grasses, branches, and unusual botanical textures. With the garden at its most dramatic, we’ll gu...

10/16/2026

There is something a little magical about Salem in the rain ✨

10/16/2026

We are so excited to be judging a pumpkin carving contest for our friends in Bury St Edmunds and Beyond. Yet another fun twist in our international partnership!

Carve out some Halloween magic with the Bury St Edmunds Pumpkin Carving Competition! 🎃

This Halloween, we’re inviting families, schools and budding artists to carve a pumpkin inspired by Bury St Edmunds’ witch trial history, whether that’s a spooky scene, a witchy character or your own creative take.

And here’s the twist... your pumpkin could be judged by the Salem Witch Museum in Massachusetts! 👀

🏆 The winner of each age group will receive a heritage ticket for Moyse's Hall Museum and a £20 Bury St Edmunds Gift Card.
🗓️ Entries open 20–30 October

Brought to you in partnership with Moyse's Hall Museum and the Salem Witch Museum
Find out how to enter 👉 visit-burystedmunds.co.uk/blog/bury-st-edmunds-pumpkin-carving-competition

10/15/2026

It's that magical time of year... the pumpkins have arrived!

As this year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Salem, we wanted our pumpkins to be part of this celebration.

Thank you to Sean Fitzpatrick for these beautiful pumpkin creations!

10/14/2026

Visiting Salem this October? There is some great fall-themed programming taking place in our neighboring communities this month! 🎃

10/12/2026

King Philip’s War, the excruciating racial war between the English colonists and Indigenous peoples of New England was, in proportion to population, the bloodiest in American history. Some even argued that the massacres and destruction were too horrific to “deserve the name of a war.”

King Philip’s War quickly became one of the most written-about wars in our country's history. Notably, these documents are one-sided, revealing only the English perspective of this violence.

In this fascinating book, historian Jill Lepore argues that these words strengthened and hardened feelings that, in turn, strengthened and hardened the enmity towards Indigenous peoples.

Telling the story of this bitter conflict, and its reverberations over the centuries, Lepore has enabled us to see how the ways in which we remember past events are as important in their effect on our history as were the events themselves.

This is another must-read for anyone interested in colonial New England's history.

10/11/2026

These artifacts were once owned by Elizabeth How, one of the nineteen innocent victims of the Salem witch trials.

Elizabeth How (alternatively spelled Howe) died on July 19, 1692, along with Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, and Sarah Wildes.

Witchcraft rumors had begun circulating about Elizabeth How a decade before the witchcraft hysteria broke out in Salem. Gossip began in the 1680s when a neighborhood girl became gravely ill. The young girl complained of being pricked with pins and was tormented by terrible fits.

Over a period of two years the young child “[wasted away] to skin and bone” until she succumbed to her illness and passed away. According to her father, the little girl named Goodwife How during her fits, claiming she was the one responsible for the illness.

During Elizabeth’s witch trial in 1692, a local minister gave testimony in her defense, recalling the torment of the child ten years prior. He noted that Goodwife How had gone to the sickly girl and asked if she truly believed she was the one causing her pain. The child responded she did not and noted, “If I did complain of you in my fits I know not that I did so.”

According to the minister, once outside the house he heard the girl's brother yelling to his sister from his window, trying to persuade her to say Goody How was a witch. Reverend Phillips rebuked the child “for his boldness to stir up his sister" and added "no wonder that the child in her fits did mention Goodwife How, when her nearest relations were so frequent in expressing their suspicions in the child’s hearing when she was out of her fits."

But even with such strong testimony in her favor, it was not enough to save her life as the Salem witch trials raged on.

Items now on display include a seventeenth century clay pipe, pewter spoon, glass bottle neck, pewter buttons, a buckle, and shards of glass discovered on the property once owned by the How family.

These artifacts were donated by the Goss family in memory of Tammy Goss, whose passionate curiosity and tireless determination led to the authentication of the How homestead site and preservation of these important items.

📷Jess Shada

10/10/2026

Are you visiting Salem today? Do you want to learn more about the real men and women involved in the Salem witch trials?

The Making of a WITCH, A Play in One Act, is an incredibly gripping production about Philip English, a wealthy merchant wrongly accused of witchcraft in 1692.

Performances are taking place just down the street from our museum today at 2 or 4pm in St. Peter’s Chapel. The Chapel entrance is on Brown Street, opposite the Visitor Center and parking garage.

To purchase tickets visit www.stpeters-sanpedro.org/making-of-a-witch

10/09/2026

Visiting Salem this holiday weekend?

While the fall is a fun time to visit our city, it is also by far the busiest. The best way to prepare is to check out www.hauntedhappenings.org and download the Salem app. These are some great resources that will help you plan in advance!

Please note, ticketing and reservation systems vary from one business to another, so make sure you do your homework if you have your heart set on visiting any specific museums, tours, or attractions.

Our museum does not sell tickets in advance. Tickets go on sale at 10:00 pm the night before your visit on our website www.salemwitchmuseum.com/tickets and typically sell out very early on weekend days (Friday included) in October. If possible, we recommend visiting on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.

We open at 10:00 am seven days a week and offer presentations every half hour. Our extended October hours can be found at www.salemwitchmuseum.com/october-hours. In total, expect to be with us for an hour to an hour and a half.

We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we do our best to accommodate as many people as possible during this busy time of year! 🎃