Visitor Center Open House to Feature Talk and Book Signing

Local author Robert Booth is going to do a talk and book signing at the Salem Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty Street, on December 15 at 7:00 pm.  The talk is going to coincide with an Open House in the Visitor Center gift shop, giving you two reasons to stop by the visitor center on the 15th (perhaps after the Winter Farmers' Market, which ends at 6pm!). 

Here's the scoop on the talk and signing:  

Marblehead-based historian and author Robert Booth will be presenting an illustrated lecture entitled When Salem Ruled the World: Salem’s Global Empire of Trade and Why it Failed, 1790-1830, based on his new book Death of an Empire: The Rise and Murderous Fall of Salem, America’s Richest City.  Salem was once a global capital of commerce, with 200 ships and a fabulously lucrative trade to the Orient starting in the 1780s. The story of Salem’s friendship with India, China, and the Muslim world is as fascinating and instructive as its abrupt fall from greatness, ending in the rise of a local crime lord and a sensational murder.

If you haven't shopped in the Visitor Center Shop, you may not be aware that it carries many books for adults and children, as well as gifts, stocking stuffers, and herbs and spices for holiday cooking needs.  The bookstore is operated by the National Park Service non-profit partner Eastern National, and all profits from sales go to support the interpretive and educational programs at Salem Maritime.

Essex Heritage members, teachers with an ID card, and Eastern National members will get 15% off the purchase price of Death of an Empire.

For more information on Death of an Empire, click here.  For more information on Salem Maritime, the National Park in Salem, and the Visitor Center, visit nps.gov/sama.