A Halloween Anthology from the Student Staff Members of SCRC
Unseen horrors abound for students working in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)— dry hands from all the handwashing we do to help protect our manuscript collections and rare books from skin oils! Film reels with the pungent decay of vinegar syndrome! Book carts with wheels that screech like a dilapidated door of a haunted house! Old leather book bindings with red rot that always seems to get on your favorite shirt! Despite these oft undocumented terrors that come with the day-to-day work in these students’ unique roles within our department, we asked our graduate student employees to each select an item within SCRC’s holdings that spoke to them from the other side. What follows is an anthology of sorts with each student’s contribution highlighting materials fit for all hallows eve. Readers beware...
The first page of the book, introducing the publication, with the full title of the publication.
Circulating Supernatural Phenomena
by Iman Jamison G’ 26 (School of Information Studies), SCRC Graduate Instructional Assistant
When we think of magazines, we think of Life, Time Magazine or even Vogue. In honor of Halloween, I wanted to highlight a magazine of unusual content published in 1809!
The Supernatural magazine, for 1809 consists of four published editions from Dublin, Ireland detailing abnormal phenomenon that occurred throughout the city. There is a multitude of stories from the mid-1600s to 1809 highlighting “various wonders of the Invisible World” such as animal magnetism and spirits.
Page 23 from the magazine with the header “Compact and Exorcism” describing the section as well as a quote from English poet Abraham Cowley.
One of my favorite stories is about an apparition in Hyde Park in January of 1804. The apparition “frequently terrified” and hospitalized several people. The clearest account of this occurrence was a deposition made to a magistrate, under oath, describing “a palish spectral” which was “perceived to be a woman…but was headless.” Imagine a headless ghost story in court in the 1800s!
Magazines have been a form of public consumption as early as the 17th century and this magazine of “ancient and modern supernatural experience” is just one example of a circulated publication that could be read for enjoyment by the masses.
As it so eloquently states in its first edition “…how strangely do things beyond sense and matter attract our curiosity from childhood to the grave.”
Engraving from a page in the 1879 Syracusean, Syracuse University’s yearbook from 1877 to 1892. It appears in a section listing faculty and students at the College of Medicine.
Macabre Medics in Syracuse University’s Yearbooks
by Anna E. Shuff G'26 (School of Information Studies), University Archives graduate student
Before the advent of inexpensive photography equipment, Syracuse University’s yearbooks (variously called the Syracusean, the Onondagan, and the Syracuse University Yearbook) employed engravings or prints to decorate their pages, often themed around the aspects of student life they covered. The College of Fine Arts had their paintbrushes, the College of Applied Science had their drafting tools, but decorations for the College of Medicine often took on a decidedly creepier tone, with skeletons and other memento mori as their primary motifs.
Print from a page in the 1895 Onondagan, Syracuse University’s yearbook from 1884 to 2017. It appears in a section of the yearbook that lists class officers for the College of Medicine and includes a humorous story entitled “History of the ’95 Medics."
Usually, these images are humorous, like this jaunty skeleton in a top hat and suit who appears several times in early yearbooks, including the 1879 Syracusean pictured here. Occasionally, the depictions are more somber and reflect students’ contention with mortality during their studies. The pictured 1895 Onondagan print is one example, showing a young man haunted by skeletal specters, one of whom bears the tiny skeleton of an infant. I find these types of images to be a fascinating window into how 19th-century medical students viewed their work, and I always keep my eye out for them when I’m doing research with the yearbooks.
The title page of Crowe’s book presents a quote from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet wherein the titular Hamlet follows the ghost of his father who implores him to question his arrival in this spectral state.
Dark Side of the... Nature?
by Calvin Silver G’26 (School of Information Studies), Public Services Reference Assistant
Catherine Crowe (1790-1872) was a Victorian novelist, playwright and writer of supernatural phenomenon. After The Story of Lily Dawson, her most famous fictional work at the time, Crowe published The Night Side of Nature, or Ghosts and Ghost Seers in 1847, inspired by German supernatural writers. The Night Side of Nature, with chapter titles such as “Wraiths,” “Apparitions” and “Haunted Houses,” became her most popular work, providing her with moderate wealth and fame. While ghost stories were not uncommon in Victorian England, it was rare to encounter one presented as pure fact, which bolstered the book’s popularity.
The first page of Chapter 13, or “Haunted Houses.”
Crowe was a passionate believer in the supernatural and wished for more scientific study into the subject. She provides within the book examples of real instances of haunted houses, Doppelgangers, apparitions and spectral lights, claiming that they are not merely the tales of the fanciful and imaginative but rather examples of supernatural elements affecting the waking world. Today, Crowe has largely been forgotten, even though she achieved relative fame for her time. Despite this, the book is a fascinating read with entertaining ghost stories cushioning Crowe’s arguments that not only are ghosts real, but that they continue to walk among us.
Franz Waxman’s sheet music for the song “Doll Dance.”
Doll Dance: A Hauntingly Jovial Melody
by Wesley Starr G’27 (School of Information Studies), Media Preservation Assistant
Tod Browning’s horror film The Devil-Doll (1936) features music by Franz Waxman. As a composer, Waxman was known primarily for his film music and found success with horror and thriller films, including the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein.
The Devil-Doll follows wrongly convicted ex-banker Paul Lavond as he escapes prison with a mad scientist working on a formula to shrink all people and animals to preserve the Earth’s resources. Lavond instead uses the shrinking formula to exact revenge on those who framed him, all the while disguising himself as an elderly woman, selling his victims as lifelike dolls.
A list of compositions for the film recorded by MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation) from the film studio’s music copyright department. Waxman’s compositions can be seen within the list.
While Waxman’s score reflects the sinister themes of the movie, he also employs more lighthearted pieces to set the scene and to highlight the naivety of Lavond’s victims and customers. The piece “Doll Dance” emphasizes this – at Lavond’s doll shop in Paris, this cheerful piece played on the celeste (a keyboard percussion instrument that produces soft, bell-like sounds) can be heard as children marvel at the dolls from the window. The scene, supported by the merry tune, takes on an eerie tone as the audience understands the true nature of the dolls and the youthful ignorance of the children.
A message to Hattie Snow from her deceased mother speaking of her safety, security and assuaging fears and doubts she might have of what is to come.
Talking to the Dead and Hearing Back
by Philomena Kern G’26 (School of Information Studies), Processing Graduate Student
Spiritualism is a movement that holds belief that people who are deceased can communicate with those who are living. It gained popularity in America in the 19th century, after the Civil War. Many used it to talk to their loved ones. Some ways that people communicated with spirits were séances and spirit writing. The séance letters in the Charles Wesley Snow Collection are an example of spirit writing, or automatic writing. Spirit writing occurs when someone holds a writing utensil and allows their hand to be moved by spirits who are trying to communicate. Planchettes and Ouija boards were also used for writing.
Hattie’s husband sends her words from the afterlife.
Charles Wesley Snow (1835-1918) was an entrepreneur who owned C.W. Snow and Drug Company here in Syracuse. He married Harriet (Hattie) Powers in 1863. Within the collection’s correspondence are a number of séance letters to Hattie. One letter was written to Hattie from her mother. In it, she talks about how Hattie is safe and protected by God. The other letter was written to Hattie from Snow, two years after he passed. He reflects on their marriage and how she was a good wife to him.
Page 1 of the short story “To Serve Man,” typewritten draft.
“It’s a cookbook!”
by Zachary Perrier G ‘27 (School of Information Studies), Media Assistant
“To Serve Man” is a short story written by science fiction writer and novelist Damon Knight and was published in the November 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. The story revolves around a race of aliens encountering Earth, showering humanity with gifts and creating world peace. The story’s twist is that these gifts are a front to the aliens’ real motive: to abduct and eat humans. The final scene of the book is the moment when one of the aliens tells the main protagonist, a United Nations translator, that the aliens’ book, To Serve Man, is not a manual for benefiting humankind, but rather “a cookbook.”
Page 12 of “To Serve Man,” typewritten draft. This is the final page, revealing the story’s famous twist.
Knight’s story was adapted to the small screen in 1962 when it became one of the most well-known and acclaimed episodes of The Twilight Zone. I chose this item since my family loves The Twilight Zone and this episode in particular. The story and the episode allude to anxieties during the postwar era, a stark warning of extremist politics masquerading as moral good. The story warns of the inability of people to truly question authority, up until the moment when it’s too late.
The poem “Martha Carrier” featuring a woodblock illustration from John DePol.
“When Devils Moved Among Us”: Poetry of the Salem Witch Trials
by Lauren Goss G’27 (School of Information Studies), Public Services Reference Assistant
When I think about Halloween, I immediately think of the 1993 movie, Hocus Pocus. This movie was, and still is, a staple of mine around the Halloween season. It was not until I grew older that I realized the film was inspired by and drew themes directly from the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The Salem Witch Trials have always interested me, but I had never become enveloped in them until recent years. For my vignette, I am highlighting the poem “Martha Carrier” from Constance Carrier’s chapbook, Witchcraft Poems: Salem, 1692. This poem takes on Martha’s experience of being the first woman accused of witchcraft in Andover, Massachusetts, and her trial in 17th century Salem through the eyes of a distant relative over three centuries after Martha’s accusations and trial. By intertwining the voices of each woman in vastly different periods of time, Constance presents an intriguing narrative which is unlike any other in this book of poems. The most fascinating aspect of this poem, to me, is the direct lineage from Martha to Constance, as the pair are distant relatives of one another, which helps to provide a deeper and more meaningful background to the remarkable and harrowing life story of Martha Carrier.