Northend, Mary Harrod

Mary Harrod Northend (May 10,1850-Dec. 17,1926) was a prolific writer and photographer, and a native of Salem. She lived on Lynde Street.

Mary Harrod Northend wrote for magazines and published many volumes about the history of colonial homes and furnishings in New England. Some of her books are in the Salem Collection room of the Salem Public Library. She was known for her photographic works in magazines as well. To get the amount of writing and publishing done, she hired a stenographer, several file clerks and a photographer as well as many other assistants.

Some of the journals she wrote for were:Ladies Home Journal, the Century and the Outlook.

Her interest lay mostly in the preservation of historic houses in Salem and Essex County. She took exterior and interior photos of homes. Her photo collection eventually amassed some 20,000 images.

According to Donna Seger's blog Streets of Salem, "Mary led a quiet life in her childhood and adulthood, until she burst out in her 50s and started writing all about colonial Salem and colonial New England, necessitating regional travel, which she clearly embraced. Eleven books were published between 1904 and 1926, when she died in Salem from complications sustained from a car accident."

Her work is preserved at the archives of Historic New England (over 6,000 plates) and at Winterthur Museum Library in Delaware.

See Also

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Northend, Mary H.
• Mary Harrod Northend Streets of Salem blog
• Colonial Homes and their furnishings by Mary H. Northend, 1912.
• Historic Homes of New England by Mary H. Northend, 1914
• Historic Doorways of Old Salem by Mary H. Northend, 1926.
• Massachusetts Magazine; Devoted to Massachusetts History, Genealogy and Biography Vol.8 , p.23-26