Lily Dale

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A 1910s illustrated postcard of Lily Dale, NY depicting Cassadaga Lake.

Lily Dale is a Spiritualist community located 60 miles south of Buffalo, NY on Cassadaga Lake. The town is renowned for its resident mediums and proclaims to be the “World’s largest center for the science, philosophy, and religion of Spiritualism.”

The idea for a Spiritualist community at Cassadaga Lake existed for years prior to Lily Dale’s founding. From 1844 through 1878, several local groups held annual one-day retreats featuring workshops and demonstrations conducted by professional clairvoyants.

The meetings grew in popularity and it was soon decided to establish a year-round Spiritualist community. On August 23rd, 1879 the Cassadaga Lake Free Association purchased a plot of land from a local farmer for $1845.12 and gave it the name “Lily Dale.”

The town is now home to over 275 permanent residents and 30 certified mediums. Each year 22,000 people visit the community for workshops, lectures, and demonstrations that proclaim to “deepen faith and heighten awareness.”

Stay tuned for our new exhibition “Welcome to Lily Dale” coming this December!

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Ghostbusters

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

Ghostbusters is a science fiction comedy film released in 1984 by Columbia Pictures. The movie follows three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost hunting business after losing their teaching jobs at Columbia University.

The concept for Ghostbusters was inspired by lead actor Dan Aykroyd’s personal fascination with the paranormal. He originally conceived a story where a group of “ghostmashers” traveled through space, time, and other dimensions to combat huge ghosts. Recognizing budgetary constraints with Aykroyd’s idea, Director Ivan Reitman gave the script a major overhaul and instead centered the plot in New York City.

Upon its release Ghostbusters received favorable reviews from critics and went on to become the highest grossing film of 1984. The movie spawned a franchise of related sequels, animated television series, toys, and other merchandise still popular today.

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Vampire

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A replica movie poster for the 1931 American vampire-horror film Dracula.

Vampires are created when a departed soul returns to the corpse following an improper burial or turbulent death. The possessed corpse will often wage warfare against humanity and seek to drain the life from people who had once wronged it.

Although vampiric creatures have been recorded in many cultures since prehistoric times, the term vampire did not become popular until the 18th century in Western Europe. Primitive vampires were typically noted as an attractive female human that had been gifted with eternal life and perennial youth.

Published in 1890, Bram Stoker’s Count Wampyr novel established many traits for the modern vampire, including its inability to be photographed and power to see in the dark. Features such as canine teeth and pointed fingernails were given to the novel’s main character Dracula due to Stoker’s infatuation with the European werewolf.

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Frankenstein’s Monster

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A replica movie poster for the 1931 American pre-code horror film Frankestein.

Frankenstein’s monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. The monster is often erroneously referred to as “Frankenstein,” but is originally presented as an unnamed creature.

The monster is created in a laboratory by Victor Frankenstein, a chemistry student at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria. Upon bringing the monster to life, Frankenstein flees the laboratory and disavows the entire experiment.

While wandering the wilderness seeking clues of its origin, Frankenstein’s monster develops the ability to speak and feel human emotion, compelling it to seek revenge against its creator. Toward the end of the novel, the monster locates Victor Frankenstein in the Artic, but becomes upset after learning that its creator had recently died from pneumonia.

The monster is described as an 8-foot-tall ugly creation with yellow translucent skin that reveals inner workings of vessels and muscles. Due to its appearance, the monster fails to integrate itself into human social patterns, and is shunned by all that see it.

Today the creature is known simply as “Frankenstein” and is often depicted as a tall green monster with a flat head and electrofied bolts protruding from the side of its neck. This image was made popular in Boris Karloff’s 1931 movie Frankenstein.

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Halloween

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A replica movie poster for the 1981 American film Halloween II.

Halloween is a popular international holiday celebrated annually on October 31st. It originates from an ancient Celtic tradition called Samhain, a festival occurring around fall harvest recognizing the start of a new year.

Samhain was a difficult time for Celts—the days became shorter, the temperature dropped, and food was no longer readily available. During this period, the veil between life and death was at its strongest.

Due to the close proximity of the physical and supernatural worlds, Celts believed that spirits could once again walk the earth. To fend off these ghosts, large bonfires were built to invoke the help of the gods through animal and human sacrifice.

Halloween is also thought to have been heavily influenced by All Saints Day (All Hallows Day), a Christian holiday occurring on November 1st. During this celebration, the dead were honored with prayers and bells were rung for souls stuck in purgatory.

All Hallows Day gave birth to the practice of “souling,” the door-to-door solicitation of treats. Hungry children would visit homes and ask for a piece of “soul cake”—in return, they would offer up prayers for the recently departed.

Halloween reached America in 1911 when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children dressing in costumes and causing a ruckus around their neighborhood. After years of mischief on All Hallows Eve, local homeowners began to offer children “treats” to avoid having their property be “tricked.”

During the 1920s, the holiday was commercialized, and began to include corn mazes, haunted houses, hayrides, and costume stores. Halloween has become highly lucrative in recent years, generating an estimated $7 billion in revenue in 2011.

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Funeral Director

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A brush used by a funeral director to remove dirt and debris from the clothes of a deceased person.

A funeral director, also known as an undertaker or mortician, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. Their tasks include cremation, embalming, and burial of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of funeral ceremonies.

The first funeral directors in America were B. Frank Kirk and William Nice. The business partners merged their family’s furniture and casket making businesses together in 1874 to form a full time funerary service in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia.

The majority of modern day funeral homes continue to be operated as family run businesses. Typically, the owner of a funeral parlor will hire one to two relatives with a background in mortuary science to serve as undertakers and perpetuate the family’s ownership.

In the United States, individual states have their own licensing regulations for funeral directors. Most require a combination of post-secondary education, passage of a state and national board examination, and one to two years’ work as an apprentice.

Visit the original Kirk and Nice Funeral Parlor as part of the Museum of the Macabre’s Ghosts of the Great Road tours this fall!

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Cliveden

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A postcard featuring Cliveden, site of the 1777 Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown.

Cliveden, located at 6401 Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia, was constructed in 1767 by Benjamin Chew, a wealthy colonial lawyer, politician, and landowner. Originally built as a summer residence, Cliveden would end up serving as a year-round home to the Chew Family for over seven generations.

The Chew House at Cliveden was host to the Battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777. The Revolutionary War encounter saw the British, armed only with muskets and bayonets, fight off an attack from George Washington’s army from behind the thick stone walls of the home.

Approximately 57 Americans died on the grounds while attacking the Chew House and a small number of British were killed inside the residence. While many victims from the battle were buried further down Germantown Avenue at the Upper and Lower Burying Grounds, spirits from the conflict are believed to remain to this day.

According to a 1953 Pennsylvania Dutchman article, the spirit of a British soldier is believed to frequent Cliveden’s pebble stone driveway. Known as “The Ghost of Chew’s Wall,” the noisy phantom caused so much commotion that citizens of Germantown organized a committee in the early 19th century to seek its capture. The spirit proved elusive and is still said to haunt Germantown Avenue.

Inside the Chew House, family members were known to host regular séances in the main foyer. In a 1920 séance, the spirit of Samuel Chew Jr. was contacted through the mediumship of Mrs. Duane in order to clarify ambiguous directions left in his will.

Eerie occurrences continue to manifest at Cliveden to this very day. A human skeleton was found inside a cleft tree on the property and tour guides regularly report flickering lights and strange sounds in the house. Cliveden is now operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is open for tours to the public four days a week.

Participate in a special behind-the-scenes tour and paranormal investigation of Cliveden this fall, as part of the Museum of the Macabre’s Ghosts of the Great Road fundraiser.

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Ansel Bourne

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

William James, an expert on psychical research, hypnotized Ansel Bourne to uncover his alternate personality.

On January 17, 1887 Reverend Ansel Bourne left his home in Greene, Rhode Island to run errands in nearby Providence.  He was not discovered until eight weeks later in Norristown, Pennsylvania living as a shopkeeper.

Having no idea how he arrived in Norristown, the Reverend claimed to have “simply woke up at 5 AM on a Monday morning unaware of the date and surroundings.”  His neighbors knew who he was, and identified him as A. J. Brown, a businessman who had arrived six weeks before.

After hearing of the mysterious case of Ansel Bourne, William James, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, proposed to hypnotize the Reverend to recover his lost memories.  While under hypnosis, Bourne immediately reverted to his identity as Brown and delivered Brown’s personal history.

James writes of the experiment in The Principles of Psychology (1890) and proposed that the “same brain may host two conscious selves, either alternate or coexisting.” He believed this was possible either through insane delusion or possession by ghosts.

Spiritualists adapted the latter stance and used it as evidence to support their belief system.  It was argued that the “alternate state or secondary consciousness might be a dead soul speaking from another place.”

The evidence fueled the development of the Society for Psychical Research and further bolstered its validity among reputable scientists.

Quotes taken from:
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew. Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination.

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Warrington House

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

The haunted Warrington House in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Warrington House, formerly known as the LaLaurie House, is a building located at 1140 Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. The three-story structure was built in late 1831 as a home for Marie Delphine LaLaurie and her husband Dr. Louis LaLaurie.

The home hosted many fashionable affairs in its early years. Such guests as Marshal Michael Ney, Napoleon’s famous commander, and the Marquis de LaFayette have slept in the famous mansion.

On April 10, 1834 a cook accidentally set fire to the home while the LaLauries were out-of-down. When neighbors rushed into the mansion to save valuables, they discovered numerous enslaved people chained in their quarters.

Fire fighters acknowledged finding the enslaved strapped to operating tables while others were confined to dog cages. The site of human body parts scattered throughout the attic reportedly caused many of these fire fighters to faint.

As a result of its turbulent history, the Warrington House is commonly referred to as the “Haunted House.” The primary ghost is a little slave girl who jumped from the roof to her death after Madame LaLaurie chased her off a balcony.

Others believe that Madame LaLaurie buried tortured victims in the home’s courtyard; also contributing to the home’s haunting. Although the mansion has recently been converted into a private residence of five apartments, reports of the paranormal continue.

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Daniel Dunglas Home

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Richard W. Fink II

A magic lantern slide depicting Daniel Dunglas Home levitating during his famous 1857 séance.

Scottish medium Daniel Dunglas Home hosted some of the most publicized séances in history. Known for his ability to levitate at various heights, it is believed that “more than a hundred times in good light” Home defied the laws of gravity.

One of Home’s most famous séances occurred in 1857 at a home in Bordeaux, France. During the sitting five reputable witnesses claimed that Home rose from his chair “four or five feet from the ground” and then levitated “feet foremost, lying horizontally in the air.”

During a 1868 séance at the Ashley House in London, Home reportedly levitated through an open window and hovered 70 feet above the street. He then returned to the room through another window “headfirst, quite rapidly”.

Arthur Conan Doyle remarked that there were “so many other instances of Home’s levitations that a long article might easily be written upon this single phase of his mediumship.”

Bibliographic Information:
Arthur Conan Doyle. The History of Spiritualism, Vol. 1. London, 1926.

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