Iconography
A tour of the icons - real and imagined - that define our sense of a place and that are defined by that place in turn. Season 1: England, Season 2: New England
The Witch Hunt
Can a witch hunt narrative be effective if it includes actual witches? In part one of a two part series on Salem and its Witch Trials, Iconography uses Hocus Pocus, Scooby Doo, and The Blair Witch Project to see how the bad witch stands in for the unknowable wilderness; then Sabrina, Bewitched, I Married a Witch, and Bell, Book, and Candle tell the story of how the witch was domesticated.
More episodes from Iconography
Plymouth Rock: A Pageant
Visitors to Plymouth Rock tend to find the icon... underwhelming - a small, scarred rock in a cage.
Maybe the reason Plymouth Rock is so frequently seen as underwhelming is because all the …
Mayflower II
In the 1950s, something must have been in the water, because all of a sudden, there was a movement afoot to put a replica of the Mayflower in the water. For one man to become obsessed with …
The Mayflower
The Mayflower is a foundational icon of the United States, but it was a British ship carrying British subjects to a British colony. So how does the …
The First Thanksgiving
Sarah Josepha Hale, editress of Godey's Lady's Book, dedicated years of her life to the crusade to make Thanksgiving a national holiday - she was …
The Crucible of Modern Salem
The Witchfinder General of Salem, Eric Dwinnells leads us on a Halloween journey to the heart of Salem, Massachusetts. Find it questionable that the Salem Witch Trials and The Crucible …
Squanto
As an icon, Squanto is known, but he isn’t really known. What Santa is to Christmas and the Easter Bunny is to Easter, Squanto is to Thanksgiving. He is a sense memory from childhood. He’s …
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