While scholars have been drawing on the voluminous diary of the Reverend William Bentley for decades, it is only one of a succession of personal perspectives on Salem’s past. From the seventeenth century through the twentieth, soldiers and statesmen, artists and authors, and otherwise average men and women chronicled their daily lives and responded to the epic events that impacted their worlds, including wars, economic crises, and pandemics. Dr. Donna Seger of Salem State University will present an overview of Salem diaries and diarists over the centuries, and focus on a few lesser-known, insightful, and chatty chronicles.

Donna A. Seger is Professor of Medieval & Early Modern History at Salem State University and author of the popular blog, Streets of Salem. She is also the author of The Practical Renaissance: Information, Culture and the Quest for Knowledge in Early Modern England.