Derby Wharf and Salem Harbor shoreline, painting by Fred Freeman, c. 1803 Freeman’s painting offers a powerful image of human beings harmoniously engaged in a common pursuit. According to Claudia Durst Johnson Hawthorne saw these moments and both valuable and fleeting. To work with others toward a common goal is to subordinate the self to the welfare of the larger whole, an attitude in direct opposition to the damaging pride that aflicts so many of Hawthorne's villains. The attitude has a humility in it that brings to mind Hawthorne's virtuous figures such as Earnest of "The Great Stone Face" or The Scarlet Letter's Hester Prynne in her moments that approach selfless charity.
(courtesy of Salem Maritime National Historic Site)
Exterior of the Custom house about 1870. Custom House-Bonded Warehouse, exterior preceding 1873 painting, from the Historic Structure Report (courtesy of Salem Maritime National Historic Site)
Hawthorne's Salem Custom House seal Custom House seal used by Hawthorne when he worked as surveyor at the Salem Custom House from 1846-1849 (courtesy of Salem Maritime National Historic Site)
Plate II, Adam and Eve, Derby Family Bible, Universal Bible, 1759 ed. Print of Adam and Eve as Their Disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden Brings Sin and Death into the World, the Original Sin Precipitating the Fall of All Humanity (courtesy of Salem Maritime National Historic Site)
Portrait of Major Joseph Hiller, Collector of the Port from 1789-1802, which hangs in the Salem Custom House (courtesy of Salem Maritime National Historic Site)
The Historic Structure Report: Title Page of the Architectural Data Section - The Custom House-Bonded Warehouse Historic Structure Report (courtesy of Salem Maritime National Historic Site)
