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Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for witchcraft – Antique Print

Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for witchcraft, [between 1900 and 1920] — historic photograph
Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for witchcraft, [between 1900 and 1920]. Historic photograph from the Detroit Publishing Company collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This historic photograph of Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for witchcraft brings a moment of history to your wall. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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Trial of George Jacobs of Salem for witchcraft

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This photograph reproduces T. H. Matteson's 1855 painting of the trial of George Jacobs, an elderly Salem farmer accused of witchcraft in 1692. Jacobs was convicted on the testimony of accusers who claimed he had tormented them, and he was hanged that August, one of the 19 people executed in the Salem witch trials. Matteson, a New York painter, made the work more than 160 years after the events, at a time when Americans were revisiting the trials as a lesson about fear and unfounded accusation. The painting hung at the Essex Institute in Salem, and the Detroit Publishing Company's copy preserves its composition for viewers who could not see the original.

Created / published[between 1900 and 1920]
Medium1 negative : glass ; 6.5 x 8.5 in.
GenreMass. Detroit Publishing Co. no. 078018. Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949."
NotesPhotograph of a painting signed T. H. Matteson 1855" at Essex Institute
SubjectsWitchcraft. Courtrooms. Judicial proceedings.United States--Massachusetts--Salem.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection
Original scan973 × 760 px
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-DET-76012

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