Future Of Salem's 2-Century-Old City Seal Up For Debate

SALEM, MA — The debate over whether the City of Salem's official seal — which has been in place since 1839 — should be changed based on its depiction of a Sumatran spice merchant as a symbol of the city's trade history will be the subject of a virtual public forum next month.

The City Seal Task Force, which the City Council approved in a split vote this past fall after considerable public debate, will spend the next 15 months talking with residents, local historians, cultural workers and other experts to determine whether the seal should be modified and, if so, how it should be modified.

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The Task Force will make a recommendation to the City Council, which will ultimately decide the seal's fate.

The public is invited to share their thoughts during the virtual forum on July 14 at 7 p.m.

"We see this process as an opportunity for collective reflection and deep listening," the Task Force said in announcing the forum. "We hope to come together with curiosity and open minds as we explore the complex and layered history of Salem — together."

The 8-3 City Council vote approving the Task Force came after a divided public comment among those who view the seal as an important part of the city's history that should not be altered and those who say the use of a Southeast Asian merchant is exploitive and may promote a distorted viewpoint of that history from the Sumatran perspective.

According to Destination Salem, the seal was commissioned by the city to be designed by George Peabody in 1839. Peabody was a descendant of some of Salem's greatest pepper merchants and was himself a ship owner.

Rather than depicting a scene of Salem, Peabody thought it fitting to draw a figure representative of a Sumatran merchant as a reference to where the pepper trade first began.

Since 1839, the seal has been used on official city documents and records. In addition, using the seal on anything other than documents pertaining to official City of Salem business is a violation of state law and local ordinances.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)