In 2015, Salem had one of its snowiest 30-day periods on record, with over 70 inches falling between January 12th and February 10th. Other towns in Essex county and nearby Suffolk county also topped the previous record set during the infamous Blizzard of '78. During the month of February, Salem had a total of 18 days with measureable snow fall. Additionally, February was one of the coldest of any month on record for the town, with an average temperature of only 17 degrees.
This image collection shows the impact of the stormy weather on the Salem Public Library.
Salem Public Library owns a number of books about Salem history which have been scanned and made available online through the efforts of the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to create an online digital library and preserve it for future historians as well as current users.
The books in this collection cover topics including: vital records, genealogies and family histories churches and cemeteries, military history, industry, geography among others. These titles are owned by Salem Public Library in hard copy, but by following the full text link, you can go directly to the online version and view the scanned copy, as well as search the text of the book by key words.
Boston Public Library recently digitized all 68 volumes of Salem High School's Yearbook, The Witch, from 1937 - 2015. You may view the complete, digitized yearbooks on Internet Archive.
Pvt. James H. Kieran served in Battery E of the 71st Artillery C.A.C. Growing up, Kieran lived at 21 Briggs St, Salem and attended St. Mary's parochial school, Salem High School, and Suffolk Law School, class of 1927. He worked as a machinist at United Shoe Machinery Corporation in Beverly, MA. After passing the bar, James worked as a lawyer for the remainder of his career.
Collection includes postcards received by Anna Desjardins of Salem, MA and Omer Ouellette of Canada during World War I. Anna lived in Salem for most of her life, but was briefly displaced to Lynn, MA after the Great Salem Fire of 1914. Anna was born December 28, 1897 and lived until June 13, 1969. In August of 1926, Anna and Omer Ouellette married, later having two children, Jacqueline and Roger.
The collection also features portraits of the Desjardins/Ouellette family, but the subjects are unknown.
Frank Lawton left Salem to begin his service on August 4, 1914. He took the Franconia on its first trip to England and was in France by the middle of August, 1914. This article details Frank Lawson's injuries and successes at the onset of the War, and highlights some of his first-hand accounts via correspondence.