Finding Anne Bradstreet: An Archaeological, Historical, and Literary Study of the Poet’s Seventeenth-Century (North) Andover, Massachusetts, Homes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On the night of July 10, 1666, Anne Bradstreet was startled from sleep by her family’s screams: “FIRE!! FIRE!!” While everyone escaped the blaze, the house and their belongings were destroyed. Bradstreet later lamented this fateful night in her poem “Verses upon the Burning of our House” which gave voice to her grief and cataloged what was lost, yet ultimately showed her Puritan trust in God’s will. Despite the tragedy, she and her husband Simon built a new home in Andover where she lived and wrote until her death in 1672. Anne Bradstreet was the first American author to publish a book of poetry, and her husband Simon was one of the wealthiest merchants of his generation, a local judge, and later, governor of Massachusetts. For centuries, historians, archaeologists, and the curious public have sought to locate the remnants of the Bradstreets’ Andover homes. Using methods including dendrochronology, GPR, and dirt archaeology, we have discovered the remains of both Bradstreet houses — vestiges from the 1666 fire, as well as elements of the replacement home which still partially stands today. This paper will discuss recent discoveries, emerging interpretations, and plans for continued investigations and preservation at the site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52596