Salem, (1) a city and port of entry of Massachusetts, on a peninsula in Massachusetts Bay, 16 miles by rail N. by E. of Boston. It has a good harbour, from which was formerly carried on a large trade with China, the East Indies, Africa, and South America; but now only a coast trade in ice and coal remains. Principal institutions of Salem are the East India Marine Society, its collections now united with those of the Peabody Academy of Science (which possesses a noble collection of Japanese pottery), the Essex Institute, and the Salem Athenæum, the last two housed in Plummer Hall. The manufactures include cottons, jute, leather, shoes, iron castings, lead pipes, &c. Salem was settled in 1626. In 1692 the great witchcraft delusion broke out, during which nineteen persons were hanged (including one clergyman) and one pressed to death. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Prescott the historian were born here. Pop. (1880) 27,563; (1890) 30,801.—(2) Capital of Salem county, New Jersey, on Salem Creek, miles from its entrance into the Delaware and 36 miles by rail SSW. of Camden. It has manufactures of glass, flour, oil-cloth, carriages, besides a foundry, planing-mills, and a number of fruit-canneries. It was founded in 1675. Pop. (1890) 5512.—(3) Capital of Oregon, on the east bank of the Willamette River (here crossed by a wagon-bridge), 52 miles by rail S. by W. of Portland and 720 N. of San Francisco. Settled in 1834 and incorporated in 1853, it became state capital in 1860. The streets are wide and regular.
Here are the state capitol, prison, and insane asylum, and schools for the blind and deaf and dumb, besides the Willamette University (Methodist Episcopal, 1851), and several manufactories. Pop. (1880) 2538; (1890) 4515.