Churches, Blacksmith Shop and College: A View of Salem
Edward Beyer
1855
Oil on canvas
Virginia Historical Society
Gift of Lora Robins, E. Claiborne Robins, Jr., Bruce C. Gottwald,
Paul Mellon, D. Tennant Bryan, Henry F. Stern, Mrs. E. Schneider, and Thomas Towers.

Nineteenth-century Salem was a market town, where produce from nearby plantations was sold, and with the income from the sales planters bought hard and soft goods of every description as well as farm equipment, seed, and feed. In the late 1800s a visitor described the town: it "lies in a broad valley, is surrounded by large estates, and an air of prosperity and pleasant home-life pervades the whole scene." Some twenty residents of Salem commissioned Edward Beyer to paint this panorama. He shows us the buildings of the town, their positions in the landscape, and how people dressed, worked and traveled. We view the canvas almost as if it were a moving panorama.