East India Marine Society
The East India Marine Society of Salem, Massachusetts, United States, was "composed of persons who have actually navigated the seas beyond the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, as masters or supercargoes of vessels belonging to Salem." It functioned as a charitable and educational organization, and maintained a library and museum. It flourished especially in the 1800sā1830s, a heyday of foreign trade.
East India Marine Hall in 2013, now part of the Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Museum of Salem (1915ā1992), formerly the Peabody Academy of Science (1865ā1915), was a museum and antiquarian society based in Salem, Massachusetts. The academy was organized in part as a successor to the East India Marine Society, which had become moribund but held a large collection of maritime materials in a museum collection at the East India Marine Hall, built in 1825 on Essex Street. The Peabody Museum was merged with the Essex Institute to form the Peabody Essex Museum in 1992. The East India Marine Hall, now embedded within the latter's modern structure, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 in recognition of this heritage, which represents the nation's oldest continuously-operating museum collection.
View of East India Marine Hall exterior, 2013
East India Marine Hall, 2015
Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1910s
Peabody Museum Marine Room, circa 1920