Uncovering the Witchcraft Hysteria: Insights from the 1949 Internet Archive

The 1949 Witch is Which Internet Archive is a digital repository that was created to commemorate and document the events and history surrounding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. This online archive was launched in 1949, marking the 257th anniversary of the trials, and has since grown to become a comprehensive resource for researchers, scholars, and anyone interested in learning about this infamous chapter in American history. The archive houses a vast collection of primary source materials, including court records, testimonies, letters, diaries, and other documents related to the trials. These documents provide valuable insights into the beliefs, panic, and social dynamics that fueled the witch hysteria in Salem. With the help of digital preservation techniques, the archive has made these historical records easily accessible to a global audience, ensuring that they are preserved for future generations. In addition to the primary source materials, the 1949 Witch is Which Internet Archive also offers secondary sources, scholarly articles, and interpretative essays on various aspects of the Salem Witch Trials.

In 1950, Vali landed in an impoverished, post-war Paris. There were no jobs and she found herself struggling to survive with the city’s incoming wave of war refugees; finding a family amongst Romany people and displaced Jews from across Europe. She spent the next ten years on Paris’s streets, frequenting cafés of the Left Bank in the daytime and dancing for money in nightclubs, where she felt a connection with her new friends – misfits on the fringes of society – that lasted her entire life. All that she possessed were some clothes, a knife for protection and a sketchbook, small enough to carry around, both of which she took wherever she went.

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1930 to a violinist mother and a father who was a marine wireless operator, Vali s early upbringing, unlike the woman herself, was fairly unsensational. When development threatened her beloved valley, she fought against the local authorities, eventually obtaining permission to preserve the area under the protection of the World Wildlife Fund.

In addition to the primary source materials, the 1949 Witch is Which Internet Archive also offers secondary sources, scholarly articles, and interpretative essays on various aspects of the Salem Witch Trials. These resources provide context and analysis, helping readers to understand the broader historical, cultural, and legal implications of the events. The archive engages in ongoing research and collaborations with historians, experts, and descendants of those involved in the trials.

A Lesson in True Bohemianism with the Witch of Positano

Every so often, an original is born; timeless, defying genre and completely of themself. Vali Myers, artist, dancer, environmentalist, bohemian and muse, was as original as they come, inspiring writers, artists and musicians from the streets of a post Second World War Paris to her bohemian coven in the wild canyons above Positano. Forming friendships with the avant-garde from Dali to Patti Smith, it seems that everyone who met Vali was captivated by the elfin-faced, flame-haired maverick known as the “witch of Positano”.

Vali Myers’ homestead in the mountains above Positano © One Stone House

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1930 to a violinist mother and a father who was a marine wireless operator, Vali’s early upbringing, unlike the woman herself, was fairly unsensational. Determined to follow a career in dance, she soon figured out that rather than fight with her parents forever, she’d have to flee the nest. At only fourteen, Vali left home for Melbourne, grafting in factories to pay for her dance lessons. She quickly became the lead dancer in the Melbourne Modern Ballet Company, but feeling stifled once more by the place she called home, in 1949, at the age of nineteen, she fled again, much further this time, boarding a ship to Paris.

Vali Myers in Paris

In 1950, Vali landed in an impoverished, post-war Paris. There were no jobs and she found herself struggling to survive with the city’s incoming wave of war refugees; finding a family amongst Romany people and displaced Jews from across Europe. She spent the next ten years on Paris’s streets, frequenting cafés of the Left Bank in the daytime and dancing for money in nightclubs, where she felt a connection with her new friends – misfits on the fringes of society – that lasted her entire life. All that she possessed were some clothes, a knife for protection and a sketchbook, small enough to carry around, both of which she took wherever she went.

Vali Myers, in ‘Love on the Left Bank’ by Ed van der Elsken 1954

It may sound vibrant and bohemian, but Vali said there was nothing romantic about it; they sat in cafés because they had nowhere else to go and dancing allowed her to eat. Discussing this period in an interview with Age Magazine just before her death, Vali said “It was a rough life. If you even picked up the stub of a cigarette, you shared it with everybody.”

She poured her darkness into her art. Her works are a feast for the eyes, depicting flamboyant, psychedelic figures and animals, combined with mythological motifs. Centred upon the female (her women often resembling the artist), she explored primordial themes such as fertility, womanhood and the thin veil between nature, life and death.

Contemporaries talk of how when she danced; everyone stopped to watch and she became known for her talent and her unconventional looks; bright red hair and eyes outlined in thick kohl, so different from everybody else. The Dutch photographer Ed Van Der Elsken was captivated and made her the subject of his Love on the Left Bank, a series of photographs capturing a fictional love story on the streets of Paris.

Vali Myers, in ‘Love on the Left Bank’ by Ed van der Elsken 1954

After multiple stints in jail for ‘vagabonding’, her visa expired and was denied renewal, so she left France in 1952. Hounded by the police and exiled into what she called her “walkabout” of France, Italy, Britain, Brussels and Austria, she met a young architect during her travels called Rudi Rappold in Vienna and they continued to wander Europe together. The only way for Vali to live legally in Europe however, was to marry, so she and Rudi did just that, ending their nomadic tour back in Paris, where they found kindred spirits amongst ex-pat writers, artists and bohemians who were bringing a new wave of cultural excitement to Paris after the war, such as Tennessee Williams and Jean Paul Sartre. She would smoke opium late at night with Jean Cocteau and continued a firm friendship with George Plimpton, founder of The Paris Review. It was Plimpton who first published a portfolio of Vali’s artwork in his magazine and went on to purchase almost everything she painted in the early days.

Hotel Schatz, postcard of original drawing, by Vali Myers, owned by George A. Plimpton NYC

Tennessee Williams’ character Carol Cutrere in Orpheus Descending written in 1957 is clearly based on his friend Vali: “She is past thirty and, lacking in prettiness, she has an odd, fugitive beauty which is stressed, almost to the point of fantasy, by a style of make-up with which a dancer named Vali has lately made such an impression in the Bohemian centres of France and Italy, the face and lips powdered white and the eyes outlined and exaggerated with black pencil and the lids tinted blue.”

But there was a growing darkness inside his red-headed muse. Vali had become dangerously addicted to opium. Realising that opium was killing her, Vali left Paris for the final time in 1958, escaping with Rudi to Italy, where they ventured into the mountains above Positano and found an abandoned homestead; an 18th century domed pavilion built as a summer folly by a local aristocrat. Situated in a ravine at the edge of a sublime, thousand foot cliff that looks out on to the sea, accessible only by a challenging journey on foot (still to this day), Vali fell in love with the remote hideaway.

Entrance to Il Porto Wildlife Oasis, ca. 1999, photograph: chromogenic, by Unknown photographer Vali Myers Art Gallery Trust

For years, she hibernated in the valley of Il Porto which became known as Vali’s Valley. She become one with the landscape and its creatures, many of which inevitably found their way into her compound, even her own bed, as well as her art. She and Rudi adopted a menagerie of animals from dozens of dogs, tortoises and ponies to her favourite, Foxy, an orphaned vixen that she raised as her own, letting her curl around her neck and sleep alongside her.

Vali was an environmental warrior before the term was even invented. When development threatened her beloved valley, she fought against the local authorities, eventually obtaining permission to preserve the area under the protection of the World Wildlife Fund.

© Vali Myers Art Gallery Trust

Always ahead of her time, the 1960s swung in and suddenly Vali’s unconventional philosophy and way of life was the ambition of the psychedelic generation. By now in her thirties, Vali and her lifestyle became the stuff of legend after the American filmmakers Sheldon Rochlin and Flame Schon made a documentary film about her called The Witch of Positano, quickly becoming a cult classic in the States.

In the wake of the film’s notoriety, hippies and bohemian pilgrims starting arriving on her doorstep in Positano, including Marianne Faithful with her then boyfriend Mick Jagger.

“Marianne Faithful turned up one day with her boyfriend to see some of my work. I thought, who is this scrawny little guy, so I said to him, what is it you do Micky? How would I know who the bloody hell Mick Jagger was? – I wasn’t interested in Mick Jagger, I was always into Marianne. She was a real fighter.”

Vali, pictured with Mick Jagger (right)

British folksinger Donovan, also visited Vali’s Italian homestead and later flew her to London in 1967 so she could dance on stage with him at the Royal Albert Hall to his song “Season of the Witch.” When asked what she wanted as a fee for her performance, Vali told Donavan, “one Nubian goat.”

This collaborative approach enriches the archive with new perspectives, discoveries, and revelations about the Salem Witch Trials. The 1949 Witch is Which Internet Archive actively encourages contributions from researchers, scholars, and the general public, making it a dynamic and evolving repository of knowledge. The 1949 Witch is Which Internet Archive is not only a valuable resource for academics but also serves as a platform for public education and engagement. It features interactive exhibits, virtual tours, educational materials, and a discussion forum where visitors can connect and learn from each other. The archive also hosts online events, lectures, and podcasts, bringing the study of the Salem Witch Trials to a wider audience. Overall, the 1949 Witch is Which Internet Archive is a vital resource for understanding the Salem Witch Trials and their enduring legacy. By preserving historical records, facilitating research, and fostering public engagement, this digital repository ensures that the lessons and stories of the past are not forgotten..

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Shedding Light on the Dark Past: Understanding the 1949 Witch Trials