Just wow. Just went in March, I can no longer bear the paths I repeatedly tread. I conjugate verbs beneath my feet. Elizabeth, your writing is beautiful. Layered, like our history.
Elizabeth, In addition to being beautifully written, this is so interesting! My family is in Salem and Marblehead so I'm familiar with the important role Salem played on the trade routes, including exchanging for molasses. Have you explored what the Peabody Essex Museum might offer in the way of research resources? This exhibit speaks to molasses and rum:
Thank you Wendy! I know the Peabody Essex Museum but had not seen the exhibit you’ve linked to here. Very cool because I love Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons’s artwork!
This is by far my most favorite piece of your writing that I have read. Your melding of history and poetic prose is seamless and lovely. I can’t wait to read your book!
And the historian in me is reminded of the 1919 tragedy when the molasses itself became a river in Boston, killing and injuring residents of the North End. Hard to fathom.
Thanks Kathy! And yes--the great molasses flood. The molasses in that case was from Puerto Rico. Boston remained a center of sugar processing into the 20th century, which in part explains the candy industry here: New England Confectionary Company = Necco Wafers, which were originally called "Hub Wafers."
I love your musings on the power of the river—and the ways it’s been throttled, strangled, and exploited over centuries. Thank you for doing this work—and I am very much looking forward to reading this book! Truly *feeling* the winterscapes you’ve rendered here—thank you for bearing witness to the New England mood we will occupy until May…
Please, let’s kayak on the Mystic soon. The alewife are positively flirtatious in April! 💜💚
Just wow. Just went in March, I can no longer bear the paths I repeatedly tread. I conjugate verbs beneath my feet. Elizabeth, your writing is beautiful. Layered, like our history.
Elizabeth, In addition to being beautifully written, this is so interesting! My family is in Salem and Marblehead so I'm familiar with the important role Salem played on the trade routes, including exchanging for molasses. Have you explored what the Peabody Essex Museum might offer in the way of research resources? This exhibit speaks to molasses and rum:
http://alchemy.pem.org/in_pem_collection/
Thank you Wendy! I know the Peabody Essex Museum but had not seen the exhibit you’ve linked to here. Very cool because I love Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons’s artwork!
It’s old but their archives are rich so they might be a great resource.
The hissing of the molasses barrels! Wood expanding in the sun, all sorts of sweet and sorrowful unseen chemistry around us. 💕💯
This is by far my most favorite piece of your writing that I have read. Your melding of history and poetic prose is seamless and lovely. I can’t wait to read your book!
And the historian in me is reminded of the 1919 tragedy when the molasses itself became a river in Boston, killing and injuring residents of the North End. Hard to fathom.
Thanks Kathy! And yes--the great molasses flood. The molasses in that case was from Puerto Rico. Boston remained a center of sugar processing into the 20th century, which in part explains the candy industry here: New England Confectionary Company = Necco Wafers, which were originally called "Hub Wafers."
I love your musings on the power of the river—and the ways it’s been throttled, strangled, and exploited over centuries. Thank you for doing this work—and I am very much looking forward to reading this book! Truly *feeling* the winterscapes you’ve rendered here—thank you for bearing witness to the New England mood we will occupy until May…
Please, let’s kayak on the Mystic soon. The alewife are positively flirtatious in April! 💜💚
Thank you Christy. Would love to kayak with you and flirt with the alewives!