DARK ARTS

Image: Details from Thomas Satterwhite Noble (1835-1907). Witch Hill (The Salem Martyr), 1869. Courtesy of New-York Historical Society.

Text: Keren Ben-Horin

What would you do if you found out one of your ancestors was persecuted and hung as a witch? To the late designer Alexander McQueen, the answer was obvious: he jumped on a plane across the ocean to Salem, Massachusetts, where his ancestor’s life had ended. 

In 2006, McQueen’s mother disclosed that their lineage could be traced back to a woman named Elizabeth How, who, in 1692, was falsely accused in the infamous Salem witch trials. A few months later, alongside his then assistant Sarah Burton, and the Vogue critic Sarah Mower, McQueen travelled to Salem to glean, from local historians and institutions, the details of his ancestor’s role in the witch panic that swept seventeenth century New England. 

McQueen was in luck, because How’s record is unusually complete: from the first time she appears on record— on May 31, 1692 —through her execution by hanging three months later, to the posthumous exoneration given to her daughters nineteen years after her death. 

McQueen processed this new knowledge in the only way he knew how, transforming his archival discoveries into a ready-to-wear collection: In Memory of Elizabeth How, Salem 1692. 

While How’s daughters had fought for two decades to clear her name, McQueen leaned into the symbols and imagery of witchcraft and the occult to reclaim her honour.

Image credit: Glenn Castellano, New-York Historical Society

Now, the Center for Women's History at the New-York Historical is mounting an exhibition that shines a light on this collection and the events that led to How’s execution. Originally organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming features original objects from individuals impacted by the witch trials of 1692, new objects from the collection of the New-York Historical Society, and materials from two ‘reclamation’ projects by contemporary artists who are Salem descendants: that of Alexander McQueen; and a photographic exploration of present-day practitioners of witchcraft by Frances F. Denny. 

Image: Francis F. Denny. Shine (New York, New York). 2017. From Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America series. Courtesy of the artist and ClampArt, New York.

To this day, historians disagree on what caused the shortness of breath, convulsions, fainting spells, and rigid limbs experienced by a handful of young girls in the bitterly cold winter of 1692. In the pious, Puritan community, suspicions soon turned to witchcraft. The ensuing accusations quickly spun the community and its neighbouring towns into complete chaos. In less than a year, 170 people would be accused of witchcraft, nineteen would be executed, one man would be pressed to death, and five others would perish in jail.

Elizabeth How lived on a farm in Ipswich, just outside of Salem, with her weaver husband and their six children. Records suggest they were respected members of their community. However, a decade-long dispute with neighbours was about to catch up with Elizabeth. Before long, other neighbours came forward, interpreting ‘odd’ farm animal behaviours as clear evidence of witchcraft. Even her own brother-in-law, Captain John How, went on record against her, recounting a story about a pig who “leaped up three or four feet high . . . turned . . . gave one squeak and fell down dead.” When the Captain tried to cut the pig’s ear, his hand went “numb and full of pain,”— a sure sign, in his mind, that his sister-in-law was, indeed, a witch.

Image: Record of the examination of Elizabeth How, May 31, 1692. Reproduction. Phillips Library, on deposit from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.

Elizabeth How was brought to investigation. The preliminary examination was meant to determine whether the accusations had enough merit to go before a grand jury. In Elizabeth’s case, the record notes that several accusers suffered fits, pinching, and pricking in her presence, but miraculously became well when she touched them. How unequivocally states her ignorance of witchcraft, but to no avail. Most of those who refused to admit guilt found themselves with a rope around their necks shortly thereafter.

Even after 330 years, this violent and irrational moment in American history captures the mind. So how should McQueen salvage the honour of his ancestor, who was so cruelly victimised? How could he memorialise her life?

Image credit: Glenn Castellano, New-York Historical Society

McQueen, who was always attracted to macabre and dark topics, met this challenge head-on. His collection travels across time and place— ancient Egypt, Puritan New England, Victorian England —and incorporates paganism, the occult, and esoteric symbols. Many of the signature elements of his design vocabulary are evident: bold shoulders, high necklines, strong and structured silhouettes, leather and metal bodices, and over-sized jewellery designed by his long-time collaborator, Shaun Leane.

In March 2007, the collection was revealed at a Parisian sports arena. A monumental, blood-red pentagram was painted on a black floor. Mirror-image film footage of locusts, skulls, and other fantastic scenes were projected onto an inverted pyramid that hung above the models, who walked the lines of the pentagram, as if spellbound.

Unfortunately, the show was met with disappointment. Most of the excited audience packing the arena could hardly see the clothes on the huge, dark stage. Even Sarah Mower, the Vogue critic who joined McQueen on his research trip, complained: “the audience was confronted with a distracting,overwrought show that only succeeded in ramming home the realization that the theatrics and stadium-sized presentations of the nineties are— or rather should be —a thing of the past.”  

Image credit: Glenn Castellano, New-York Historical Society

That’s a terrible shame because, on close inspection, the garments are no less dramatic than the runway show itself. A dress on display in the gallery is embroidered with glass beads that shimmer like a night sky. On the runway, it was worn with McQueen’s Star Headpiece, a companion to the Moon Headpiece. Both are symbols appearing in the Major Arcana, the twenty-two central cards in a tarot deck. The moon is also associated with the pagan goddess Diana, a figure that appears in sixteenth and seventeenth century imagery, representing witches.

Image: Star Headpiece. Alexander McQueen. The Museum of Savage Beauty collection, courtesy of the V&A, London. 

Image: Crescent Moon Headpiece. Alexander McQueen. The Museum of Savage Beauty collection, courtesy of the V&A, London.

Several of Salem’s accused confessed that the devil appeared to them in the form of a bird. To one, Tituba, it was a bright yellow bird. In response, McQueen offers a stunning handbag, decorated with a single, silver, bird claw.

Image: Bag with bird claw. Alexander McQueen. The Museum of Savage Beauty collection, courtesy of the V&A, London.

Over the three centuries since the tragic trials, descendants of its victims have continued to grapple with the injustices suffered by their ancestors. McQueen couldn’t change this brutally violent history, but he could make something utterly beautiful to celebrate the life of Elizabeth How.

The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming runs from 7 October, 2022 – 22 January 22, 2023.

Keren Ben-Horin is a Curatorial Scholar in Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society.