Artist Kathleen Ward was raised in the historic Joseph Story House overlooking Salem Common in the Peabody-Essex Museum District where her Gallery is located. The house was built by the founder of Harvard Law School for his family in 1811. John Quincy Adams, the Marquis de Lafayette, Presidents Adams, Monroe and Madison were frequent guests of Joseph Story, one of America's first Supreme Court Justices. President John F. Kennedy, Senator Ted and Mrs. Joan Kennedy, several Massachusetts Governors were also guests at the home during Kathleen's childhood.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a good friend of Story's son, American artist and author William Wetmore Story, is said to have visited the house often before William sold it and moved his family to Italy. William Story and Hawthorne presided over many interesting literary and artistic parties at Story's Roman villa. THE MARBLE FAUN was written while Hawthorne was visiting William Story in Rome.

Kathleen is the third generation to occupy the home. She studied Art in Dublin Ireland, Rome and Paris, later graduating from Montserrat College of Art and Boston University.

       

Two photos of me, one at World Con, Philadelphia 2001. The other is me at Derby Wharf in Salem MA, one of my favorite places. Derby Wharf overlooks the historic harbor used during the China Trade Era. It's said that there are secret tunnels which pass underneath the City of Salem and contain untold treasure....and maybe some untold horror tales involving the Pirate Trade as well.

It is also said that these tunnels were used by the good people of Salem to steal the slaves off the ships at dock. These eerie tunnels lead to some of the older mansions, my own as well, wherein the Abolitionists of the day took the slaves, fed them, housed them until they could safely set them free in the surrounding woods.

Eventually, John Quincy Adams and Joseph Story conducted the famous trial that established the first freedom act underlying President Abraham Lincoln's decision against Southern slave owners. The movie "THE ARMISTAD" tells the story of how the men, women and children of Africa were sold into slavery by their own people for rum. Eventually, it came to the attention of the Abolitionists, Story and Adams being of that persuasion. Since I cannot tell the tale as well as the movie, I strongly suggest you watch it for yourselves!

Thank you for visiting us here and traveling through the art of dreams.

Kathleen, Seraphina the Cat, and staff at The Joseph Story House of Salem MA