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Leading a walking tour of women's history sites in Salem, Mass., for Girls, Inc. JSM's Saunders cousins owned #39 and #41 Chestnut Street. |
Hard to believe it, but I've "known" Judith Sargent Murray (JSM) for, like, decades, since I was an undergrad. in history and comm. at Simmons College.
Research for my honors thesis led me to the "fact" that her personal papers had long ago succumbed to weather-related damage. Nothing left. ---- BUT WAIT!
Fast-forward to the mid-1990s, when I was board president of the Sargent House Museum in Gloucester, Mass. (JSM's home), and we learned that her letter books had been found and published on microfilm!
Since then, as time and earning a living allowed, I've been reading and transcribing the letter books, speaking, writing, publishing, consulting, you name it! In fact, my work earned me RECOGNITION FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS as the primary scholar on JSM.
Here's the thing. It's been my life's goal to transcribe and publish all twenty volumes of JSM's letter books. Yes, I knew it would take years, but this primary source material -- an unpublished eyewitness account left behind by THIS extraordinary woman -- is an important addition to American history.
AND THEN, at the end of 2025, I received word that the Colonial Society of Massachusetts wanted to help me publish the letter books. What an incredible honor.
Work to do!
Thanks for your interest in Judith Sargent Murray!
-- Bonnie