Special Collections Open House

Mark your calendars for a haunting Halloween afternoon of apparitions, psychic phenomenon, thoughtography and cartomancy in Special Collections and the Library Gallery! Special Collections will host an Open House from 12-3pm on Thursday October 31 - drop by the reading room to view selected highlights from the Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection, such as early Spiritualist texts, séance recordings, divination tools, and Gef the Talking Mongoose. You’ll also see how students and researchers use these items in their original scholarship. 

Schedule of Events:

• 12-3pm, ongoing: Special Collections Open House, stop by anytime

• 12-1pm: An Occult Afternoon at AOK: Tarot in the Library & Gallery, featuring a DIY tarot card station and examples of tarot decks held in the Special Collections; 

• 1-2pm: The Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection digital exhibition presentation by student curators from the Interdisciplinary CoLab

• 2-3pm: a screening of two documentary shorts about thoughtographer Ted Serios

The Special Collections reading room is located in the back of the Library Gallery, on the first floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery. Directions and information about visitor parking is available here: https://library.umbc.edu/specialcollections/visit/

The Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection consists of more than 12,000 books and over 100 periodicals, including rare books on and early journals devoted to psychical research; over 600 audio and video recordings; and extensive records of the Foundation. Founded in 1951 by trance medium and research advocate Eileen J. Garrett and congressional representative Hon. Frances P. Bolton, the Parapsychology Foundation is a non-profit organization that encourages and supports impartial scientific inquiry into psychical aspects of human nature such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. The collection at UMBC emphasizes the literature of contemporary parapsychology and publications that approach the subject from objective and analytical points of view. Strengths include: the history of psychical research and parapsychology, including early Spiritualism, mysticism and relevant philosophical works, as well as mediumship, apparitions, hauntings, poltergeists, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and experimental research on extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis, and precognition. 

Learn more about our services and collections on our website and see highlights on our Instagram page. Please reach out with any questions at speccoll@umbc.edu.