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I am the department’s public historian, meaning I teach a variety of courses on topics like museums, archaeology, material culture, and architectural history - courses that relate to historians working in the public sphere. Before coming to Salem State I was an historical archaeologist and a museum director. I continue to stay involved in these fields through consulting for area museums, and directing ongoing archaeological excavations. I am the past Chair of the Maine Cultural Affairs Council, the Maine Humanities Council, and past vice-chair the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. |
| Most recently, I have served as an advisor to We Shall Remain, a mini-series on The American Experience on PBS television. I have also worked on the PBS series,
Colonial
House. I have also contributed to the Colonial
House Web Site. |
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Most of my fieldwork and research has centered on Maine, a place where English, French and Native American cultures collided. As such, much of my research also involves Native American as well as Canadian history. I have also directed excavations at the John Balch House in Beverly, Massachusetts. |
My current book is The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. 1682, ten years before the infamous
Salem witch trials, the town of Great Island, New Hampshire, was
plagued by mysterious events: strange, demonic noises; unexplainable
movement of objects; and hundreds of stones that rained upon a local
tavern and appeared at random inside its walls. Town residents blamed
what they called "Lithobolia" or "the stone-throwing devil." In this
lively account, Emerson Baker shows how witchcraft hysteria overtook
one town and spawned copycat incidents elsewhere in New England,
prefiguring the horrors of Salem. In the process, he illuminates a
cross-section of colonial society and overturns many popular
assumptions about witchcraft in the seventeenth
century.
More on The Devil of Great Island |
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| My previous book (co-authored with John Reid), The New England Knight, is the
biography of Sir William Phips, a Maine native who would
rise from humble origins to become the first American to be knighted by
the King of England, and first royal governor of Massachusetts Bay
Colony. Successful treasure hunter, would-be military conquorer, and
governor who ended the 1692 Essex County witchcraft outbreak, Phips led
a remarkable life. Read a review of The New England Knight
The work on Phips, and my work in Salem has led me to pursue
some research and develop a graduate course on witchcraft, magic, and
popular culture in early New England. I also consult for Parks Canada
and the Province of Quebec who excavated a
ship which was part of Phips’s 1690 fleet that attempted an invasion of
Canada. |
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| In 2005 I was
honored to give the commencement address at the
graduation ceremony for the graduate school at Salem State College. Click here to read the commencement address. |
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I live with my wife and our two daughters in our 200 year-old home in York, Maine.