Salem Museum

The Salem Museum is larger than it looks, with exhibits on four floors. The heart of the Museum is the 1845 Williams-Brown House, which was originally situated along the Great Wagon Road. Exhibits trace Salem’s history from early Virginia Indian settlements and Salem’s founding in 1802, to Salem’s involvement in the Civil War and through the twentieth century.

The Museum’s Gift Shop features local crafts and hard-to-find books of regional interest. Enter the Museum through a formal herb garden. Adjacent are two historic cemeteries dating back to the late 1800s, picnic areas, pickleball courts, and a playground where children can run off steam.

Exhibits

Cheers for 30 Years at the Salem Museum

After years of dreaming and hard work, the Salem Museum opened in the historic Williams-Brown House on June 27, 1992. The Museum is celebrating its 30th Anniversary with a new feature exhibit that takes a look back at artifacts and stories now preserved in the Museum’s collections.

Some favorite—but rarely seen—objects appear in this eclectic display, including:
• a trans-oceanic short-wave radio and other examples of early technology
• military equipment from conflicts dating back to the French and Indian War
• paintings of the Museum’s historic home, plus photography and other artwork
• plus, discover why the Museum has such a sizable collection of dirt!

For those who are curious about museum operations, the exhibit also explains some of the behind-the-scenes procedures that go into curating, preserving, storing, and displaying objects, and how information about them is recorded and is able to be searched.

Participation in Museum Day is open to any tax-exempt or governmental museum or cultural venue on a voluntary basis. Smithsonian magazine encourages museum visitation, but is not responsible for and does not endorse the content of the participating museums and cultural venues, and does not subsidize museums that participate.