Salem Main Streets

Celebrate the 200th Birthday of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne downtown Salem, MA
………………….(Photos used with permission of the Peabody Essex Museum)

Saturday, September 19

10:00 a.m. Sophia Hawthorne’s Salem
Join National Park Service Historian Emily Murphy as she portrays Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife Sophia on a 90 minute walking tour of historic Salem to celebrate Sophia’s 200th birthday. This outdoor walking tour will visit spots familiar to the Hawthornes during their lives here in the early 19th century. Meet at the Hawthorne statue, Hawthorne Boulevard.

10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. “World of Women”
An exhibition featuring two paintings, Isola San Giovanni and Villa Mennagio, Lago di Como, created by Sophia Peabody Hawthorne upon her engagement to Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1839. Barbara Weld Putnam Gallery, Peabody Essex Museum , 161 Essex St., East India Square, Salem. Admission fee; free to museum members and Salem residents.

11:00 a.m. Children’s Activity
Join the Salem Athenaeum in a city-wide celebration of the Sophia Peabody Hawthorne bicentennial with a special program for children featuring a story about Sophia and an art project celebrating her life. Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex Street

11:45 a.m. Dedication of Sophia Plaque
Attend the dedication of a plaque to honor Sophia Peabody Hawthorne with Mayor Kimberley Driscoll and Representative John Keenan at Sophia’s: Gifts of Artistry & Elegance, at 105 Essex Street, a boutique housed in the childhood home of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne

12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Book Signing by Peabody Sisters biographer Megan Marshall.
Join Megan Marshall at the Hawthorne Hotel for a reading and book signing and themed menu for lunch. (Space is limited and cost depends on what you order.) Megan Marshall has published numerous articles on Women’s history and New England history. Her work on the Peabody Sisters was supported by the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Megan Marshall, author of the award-winning biography The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism will read passages from her book as well as from Sophia Peabody Hawthorne’s letters and journals and take questions from audience members about the youngest of the Peabody sisters, the only one of the three born in Salem.

2:00 p.m. Sophia Hawthorne’s Salem
Join National Park Service Historian Emily Murphy as she portrays Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife Sophia on a 90 minute walking tour of historic Salem to celebrate Sophia’s 200th birthday. This outdoor walking tour will visit spots familiar to the Hawthornes during their lives here in the early 19th century. Meet at the Hawthorne statue, Hawthorne Boulevard.

4:30 p.m. Celebrating Sophia Peabody Hawthorne’s Two Hundredth Birthday: Her Art, Her Writing, Her Influence at the House of the Seven Gables, 115 Derby St. Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, born in Salem in 1809, was a professional artist whose accomplishments include original oil canvases, watercolor sketches, illustrations, sculpture, and bas relief. She is now also recognized for her considerable contributions as a travel writer; her record of journeys to Cuba, England, and Italy are increasingly the subject of scholarly study. And, yes, she was married to another Salem resident, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who regarded her as his most important critic. Her influence on his writing was subtle and profound. Patricia Dunlavy Valenti is professor in the Department of English and Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Tickets $15. R.S.V.P. to Heidi Webb at 978-744-0991 ext. 104.

7:00 p.m. A Surprise 200th Birthday Party in Old Town Hall, Derby Square
Celebrate the birthday of one of Salem’s most fascinating and intriguing native daughters. You are invited to a party celebrating the birthday of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne in a manner you will never forget. On Saturday September 19, 2009 at 7 p.m. in Salem’s Old Town Hall, enjoy A Surprise 200th Birthday Party. Hosted by her husband Nathaniel Hawthorne, you will step into the past to assist him in surprising Sophia when she arrives with her sisters in a horse drawn carriage. The Old Town Hall is the perfect setting for the festivities as you discover more about this remarkable woman; an accomplished artist, journalist and travel writer. The celebration will include an art inspired cocktail reception with passed hors d’oeuvres, followed by champagne toasts to Sophia from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Megan Marshall and Patricia Dunlevy Valenti (two 21st century biographers), and other 19th and 21st century friends. A highlight of the evening will be a reading performance of “An Uncommon Romance”, which reveals the beautiful and touching relationship of Sophia and Nathaniel Hawthorne poignantly chronicled in their letters. Join us for an evening that promises to be one that will live with you for years to come. (Friends $18.09, Contributing Friends $50, Sponsors $200) Their will also be a Silent Art Auction to support a Sophia Art Scholarship to be awarded to a Salem High School student class of 2010 who has demonstrated a desire to pursue further education in the arts. The auction will feature works of contemporary North Shore artists in a variety of media and styles. Tickets can be purchased in advance at Sophia’s at 105 Essex Street.

Sunday, September 20

10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. “World of Women”
An exhibition featuring two paintings, Isola San Giovanni and Villa Mennagio, Lago di Como, created by Sophia Peabody Hawthorne upon her engagement to Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1839. Barbara Weld Putnam Gallery, Peabody Essex Museum , 161 Essex St., East India Square, Salem. Admission fee; free to museum members and Salem residents.

10:30 a.m. Choosing Happiness: A Remembrance of the Life of Sophia Amelia Peabody HawthorneA sermon delivered by Bonnie Hurd Smith at the First Church in Salem, Unitarian Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 316 Essex Street, Salem

2:00 p.m. Dearest Dove: The Courtship of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 115 Derby St. invites you to a special production celebrating the legendary love between Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne. Join us for a theatrical performance of Dearest Dove: The Courtship of Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne written exclusively for the Gables. Witness this historic romance in a 30 minute production featuring Hawthorne’s fabled love letters. As part of the Essex National Heritage Comission’s Trails and Sails Weekend, this event is free but space is extremely limited and reservations are required. For reservations contact Heidi Webb at 978-744-0991×104

3:00 p.m. Women’s History Trolley Tour
Join local author Bonnie Hurd Smith and Irene Axelrod, local historian, for a special Salem Trolley tour of women’s history sites in Salem, including the homes of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, her sisters and friends. You will also learn about women suffragists, abolitionists, authors, educators, artists, business owners, and philanthropists. Tour leaves from and returns to The House of the Seven Gables, 115 Derby St. Seating is limited to 32, Tickets $15 collected on the tour. Reservations accepted on a first come, first served basis by emailing bonnie@hurdsmith.com

Monday, September 21

Noon Sophia Peabody Hawthorne’s 200th Birthday Cake Cutting
Cake cutting with Mayor Kimberley Driscoll at the Hawthorne Hotel, come celebrate Sophia Peabody Hawthorne’s 200th Birthday with birthday cake sponsored by the Battlefield Journal a Civil War publication.

“My Dearest Dove”
Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne

By Emily A. Murphy
Park Historian, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, National Park
Service, used with permission
Additional information compiled by Bonnie Hurd Smith

Sophia Amelia Peabody was born in Salem on September 21, 1809, the third of six children of Dr. Nathaniel and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. From her childhood she was declared to be “of a delicate constitution,” particularly after she developed migraines as a teenager, and therefore was not expected to live very long. However, both her parents had been teachers, and her father was a Harvard-educated dentist and physician. So the fragile young woman learned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and Italian, although she was not allowed to teach in order to supplement the family income as did her older sisters.

Sophia was able to contribute in another way, though: she was a gifted artist and copied oil paintings to sell. Her sister Elizabeth introduced her to the famous painter Washington Allston, who greatly admired Sophia’s work. Her health improved when she was away from home—perhaps because of the separation from her strong-willed mother and oldest sister—and so as a young woman she traveled around New England visiting friends and even went to Cuba with her sister Mary for a few months during which she kept a fascinating journal.

The Peabody Sisters
Sophia had two older sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, and three younger brothers, Nathaniel Cranch, George, and Wellington. Mary is best known as the second wife of Horace Mann, the great education reformer and the first president of Antioch College, but Mary was an exceptional teacher and author in her own right.

It was Elizabeth Peabody, however, who was the most famous of the three sisters. In 1840, the Peabodys moved to Boston and “Lizzie” opened a bookshop in the family home on West Street that quickly became the center of intellectual life in Boston, particularly for women.

Literary lights, such as William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Margaret Fuller, could often be found there browsing the shelves, chatting with friends, or lecturing. In later life, Elizabeth Peabody became known for pioneering the kindergarten movement in America.

“How I long to be in thine arms”
Although it is unlikely that it was love at first sight, as Lizzie claimed, it is undeniable that Sophia and Nathaniel were deeply in love and remained so all their lives. The clearest evidence of their love is in their passion-filled correspondence and the journals they shared. Many of the illnesses and headaches associated with Sophia’s “delicate constitution” disappeared when she became secretly engaged to her young author in 1839 and did not return after her marriage and the birth of their three children, Julian, Una, and Rose.

Sophia’s artistic talents were also useful after her marriage, for she was able to sell her work when times were difficult for the young couple. After Nathaniel’s death, Sophia edited his notebooks for publication and in 1868 she and the children sailed for Germany. Upon Julian’s graduation from school in Dresden, Sophia, Una, and Rose moved to England in 1870, where Sophia died on February 26, 1871. She was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London—an ocean away from the husband she adored.

However, one hundred and thirty-five years after her death, in 2006, descendants of the Hawthorne family and interested friends moved Sophia’s remains to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts,
where she is now reunited with her beloved “king, playmate, lover, subject, knight, or all in one word husband”—words she had written to Nathaniel years earlier.

Learn more:

Hawthorne in Salem
The go-to website for all things Hawthorne, including a biographical sketch of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne.

Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography
Biographical sketches of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Mary Peabody Mann, and Elizabeth Peabody, who were all Unitarians.

Hawthorne in Salem Walking Tour
A self-guided walking tour created by the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, National Park Service

Boston Women Artists
One of Sophia Hawthorne’s most remarkable achievements was her stature as a professional artist and the admiration she received from Boston’s leading male artists and teachers. Perhaps her talent helped pave the way for the women artists who followed her, and who studied at the newly formed Boston Museum School. She certainly helped create a climate in Boston that could welcome and accept women as serious artists.

Books by Sophia Peabody Hawthorne available online:
Ordinary Mysteries: The Common Journal of Nathaniel and Sophia
Hawthorne (1842-43)

Notes in England and Italy (1869)

Recommended reading:

The Peabody Sisters of Salem: Three Women Who Ignited American
Romanticism by Megan Marshall (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005)

Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, A Life, Volume I, 1809-1847 by Patricia
Dunlavy Valenti (University of Missouri Press, 2004)

A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston, 1870-1940 by Erica E.
Hirshler (MFA Publications, a division of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, 2001)