victorian
Fluffy Ghosts: Allan Kardec's Orders of Spirits
An 1850s spiritualist classification of various spirits.
Following a vintage automatic writing planchette ad down a rabbit hole
Digging into the backstory of an ad in Mystic magazine.
The History of Automatic Writing Planchettes
The story of the planchette, a predecessor of the Ouija board.
The 1897 UFO Flap in North Texas
In 1897, a series of mysterious airships were sighted all around the United States. This is a look at the flap in general, with a particular focus on some of the North Texas UFO sightings.
Thoughts on some Victorian aliens
Musings about the appearance of the airship crews during the 1897 UFO flap.
The Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, or The Blackwell Island Light, NYC
A look at the mysterious Gothic lighthouse that stands at the tip of New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Did a lunatic named Thomas Maxey build the lighthouse? If so, why did a now-missing stone say that an unknown person named John McCarthy built it? Or was it designed by
A Victorian Lunatic's Fort: Fort Maxey, Blackwell's Island, NYC
In the mid-19th century, Thomas Maxey, a patient at the New York Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, built Fort Maxey, a strange structure complete with cannons, a garden of tall flowers, and mysterious carvings. The infamous New York Lunatic Asylum has its share of chilling stories. But one odd,
19th Century Ouija Board Stories / Early Ouijamania (Ouija Boards Part 4)
19th century Ouija board stories: Chris digs up some early stories of people getting waaay too obsessed with their Ouija boards. Highlights include: • a rare story of a 19th century black woman’s experience with Ouija • a couple destroying their home to (supposedly) convert the world to Masonic principles • Presidential
Playing the Ghost in 19th Century Australia
Did you know that in late 19th century Australia, ordinary people would dip sheets in toxic glowing paint and run around at night pretending to be ghosts? Neither did we, but Chris dug up this oddball story from Jen’s home state of Victoria and was excited to tell Jen
