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Ghosts in the Archives

What do an airship crash, a talking mongoose, and the most haunted house in England have in common? They are all topics addressed in the Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection held in UMBC Special Collections. 

This remarkable collection of more than 12,000 books and over 100 periodicals, including rare books on and early journals devoted to psychical research, was compiled by the Parapsychology 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. It provides a worldwide forum supporting the academic and scientific investigation of psychic phenomena. In 2022, the Parapsychology Foundation donated its extensive library to UMBC. 

The collection 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. 

Hand holding a rare book in front of a row of bookshelves.
A volume from the Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection. (Image courtesy of Shannon Taggart)

Among the rare books in the collection are Girolamo Cardano’s Somniorum Synesiorum omnis generis insomnia explicantes (1562) on the interpretation of Dreams, the three-volume collected works of physician and alchemist Paracelsus, Opera omnia : medico-chemico-chirurgica (1658), astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, John Dee’s A true and faithful relation of what passed for many yeers between Dr. John Dee (a mathematician of great fame in Queen Elizabeth and King James their reignes) and some spirits (1659), and the first English translation of scientist and mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg’s treatise on the plurality of worlds, De telluribus in mundo nostro solari (Concerning Earths in our Solar System, 1787.)

The accompanying archival collection comprises the history and proceedings of the Parapsychology Foundation and its annual conferences and publications, as well as fieldwork, research notes, and manuscripts from prominent parapsychologists. Audio-visual materials include over 600 audio and video recordings of conferences and lectures, spirit photographs, glass slides, target images, objects used in psychokinesis experiments (moving objects with the mind), and an ESP testing machine. Among the people and topics included in the collection are: the Bindelof séance phenomena, research files of psychic researcher Hereward Carrington, Montague Ullman and Stanley Krippner’s dream telepathy research, the poltergeist investigations and personal scrapbook of Nandor Fodor, scrapbooks compiled by Eileen J. Garrett, and spirit audio recordings captured by Hans Holzer. The collection also features original manuscripts by psychical researcher Harry Price and others pertaining to the infamous Borley Rectory case, popularly known as the most haunted house in England. 

Front page of Daily Express newspaper.
Daily Express Newspaper reprint, October 6, 1930. R-101 Airship files, Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection, Collection 331, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD).

Of particular interest are original case files related to the R-101 Airship crash, a disaster that occurred on October 5, 1930 when a British airship on its maiden voyage to India plummeted into the French countryside, killing 48 of 54 passengers and crew. That month, Garrett, who had demonstrated paranormal abilities since her childhood in Ireland and had already become a well-known medium, took part in a séance with Price. The purpose of the gathering was for Garrett to contact Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—author of Sherlock Holmes and an avid Spiritualist—who had recently died. Instead, Garrett channeled the voice of Airship R-101 Flight Lieutenant H. Carmichael Irwin, who reported on the technical failures that had precipitated the Airship’s fateful crash. Garrett also channeled the voices of several crash victims at another séance. The specificity of these communications, including technical details that were not public, convinced many that Garrett was indeed making contact with the dead. Files related to this incident at UMBC include news clippings and original manuscripts pertaining to this sensational story. 

Now, about that talking Mongoose… 

Small animal on fencepost.
James Irving, Gef the Mongoose, 1930s. Gelatin silver print. Nandor Fodor papers, Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection, Collection 331, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD).

In 1931, a family living on the Isle of Man claimed that their farmhouse was haunted by a spectral talking mongoose named Gef. Also known as the Dalby Spook, Gef—who could speak several languages—told the Irvings that he was 83 and from India. Initially, they saw him as a nuisance, but soon Gef became something like a family member. He hunted rabbits for them and read the newspaper over Mr. Irving’s shoulder. The story became a sensation and psychic investigators Price and Fodor studied the case, though Gef never made an appearance in front of these outsiders. If the Dalby Spook was an elaborate hoax, it was never definitively disproved. Researchers can sift through the evidence (including first-hand accounts, clippings, and photographs) in the Garrett Collection at UMBC and draw their own conclusions about Gef. 

Although the archival collection is currently being processed, researchers may consult these materials in our reading room. A box-level inventory is available by request and we are happy to assist users in locating materials relevant to their research. We are also working with our colleagues in the Library’s Technical Services department to catalog the books and serials. You can view the holdings that have already been added to the library catalog by narrowing your search location to Special Collections and the named collection to “Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection.” Please reach out to speccoll@umbc.edu for further assistance. We hope you will visit and explore these fascinating materials! 

View of seance circle from behind a man's head.
[Séance with ectoplasm viewed from behind man’s head.]Gelatin silver print from glass transparency. Nandor Fodor papers, Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection, Collection 331, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD).
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New digital collections in the Maryland Traditions Archives

The Edwin Remsberg and Human Being Productions collections document Maryland folklife

What do stuffed ham, Brazilian cavaco music, and blacksmithing have in common? All are examples of living cultural traditions in Maryland that have been recognized in recent years by the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council. Maryland Traditions hires photographers to document these and hundreds of other traditions in vivid detail every year. 

Shelley Ensor, singer and choir director, leads students in the gospel choir at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Ensor was a 2022 Heritage Award winner. Photo by Human Being Productions.

You can now find digital photographs and recordings documenting Folklife Apprenticeships, Heritage Award winners, and other performances, people, places, and art works, from 2007 to the present in two new collections in the Maryland Traditions Archives: Collection 309: Edwin Remsberg collection and Collection 332: Human Being Productions collection.

Edwin Remsberg served as the official photographer of Maryland Traditions from 2007 to 2021. In addition to photographs and audio recordings, Remsberg produced “sound books” combining still images and audio for each Folklife Apprenticeship team. The following sound book showcases a 2017-2018 Cambodian pin peat music apprenticeship with Chum Ngek and Suteera Nagavajara.

Human Being Productions has served as the official photographer of Maryland Traditions since 2021. When the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland was named a Heritage Award winner in 2022, Human Being Productions photographers captured the festival’s competitions and demonstrations. You can see a selection of those images below. Contact us for information about viewing the full collection!

Post by Acadia Roher, Maryland Traditions Archivist

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In Love and (Post)War: Depictions of Gender Roles and Relationships in 1950s Romance Comics

This blog post analyzes romance comic selections from Heart Throbs: The Best of DC Romance Comics (1979). The compilation book and other standalone romance comic titles can be found in Special Collections’ comic book archive, which offers an assortment of other genres such as superhero, western, horror, and more! Click here to see more information about this collection and how to access its materials.

Today’s conceptions of romance comics range from appreciation for their bright, nostalgia-evoking aesthetic appeal and dramatic flair, to derision for their cheesy, shallow nature. But at one point in time, young women and girls across America were voracious consumers of these stories, and it’s no wonder why so many were once enthralled with them. Despite the stigma attached to the romance genre, love as a motif in American media has been ubiquitous and pervasive throughout time. As love is a concept that many can relate to—or, at least, hope to relate to—romance comics offered their audience a way to secondhandedly engage with the positive and negative experiences associated with love in a highly entertaining manner. Popular media has also served as a significant vehicle through which the masses learn social scripts. For this demographic, romance comics acted as somewhat of a soft form of propaganda, as they helped express and reaffirm notions of gender and sexuality that were dominant in the given era.

Front cover of "Heart Throbs: The Best of DC Romance Comics" in the Special Collections reading room. The cover features a woman and man embracing on the verge of a kiss. The woman is shedding tears and the thought bubble above her head reads: "If we don't stop now — we'll be living a lie!"
Scott, Naomi. Heart Throbs: The Best of DC Romance Comics. A Fireside Book. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979. Rosenfeld (Science fiction) PN6726 .H4 1979

While the tumultuous years of World War II saw women increasingly assume social and economic roles beyond what traditional femininity would normally allow in order to make up for the large absence of men, the postwar years called for a swift rebound back to what was considered safe, normal, and stable (that is, in the imagination of white, middle-class, heterosexual America.) After the war, American youth were transitioning into adulthood at an accelerated rate: a young woman could find herself going from being a student to a fully-fledged homemaker almost instantly! At the same time, though, came the rise of a definitive youth culture marked by rebellion that evoked anxiety within the older generations. For young women, immoral behavior was primarily defined by sexual impropriety, and the promotion of traditional values was thought to be the solution to curbing such. Romance comics mirrored this sentiment, with the heroines’ woes usually being rooted in their failure to measure up to standards of traditional femininity (ex. Disappointing her breadwinner husband by not being a proficient housewife). Though these comics could be considered progressive in the sense that they weren’t hesitant to show the heroines struggling to grapple with their newfound responsibilities and communicate how difficult these standards truly were to live up to, conflict is ultimately always resolved by the heroines miraculously finding it within themselves to conform nonetheless. Take, for example, the conflict and resolution presented in these two strips:

Title page for "Impatient Heart" The cover features a man and a woman hugging as her sister looks from afar. In the scene, the woman agrees to marry the man, whereas her sister thinks that she's making a hasty decision that the woman will ultimately regret. The synopsis reads as follows: My sister Adele was thirty years old — and unmarried! In my eyes she was an old maid, and her life was finished! I was so terrified of being like her that I was ready to say 'yes' gratefully to the first man who asked me to marry him And, when I did, I almost broke my...'Impatient Heart!'"
“Impatient Heart.” Secret Hearts #26, February-March 1955.

In “Impatient Heart” struggling dater Irene contemplates the prospect of marrying the first man who shows her interest lest she end up like her “old maid” unmarried sister (who, by the way, is only thirty years old…) As Irene and Dennis’s relationship progresses, she begins to have second thoughts about whether or not she truly loves him. Her apprehension is confirmed when her sister manages to find her own true love, and she notices the stark differences between their two relationships. Irene ultimately decides to call it off with Dennis, but her happiness is not achieved by overcoming the fear of being an “old maid” and finding security in being single, but rather, continuing the pursuit of finding a husband and eventually securing “the one.”

Title page for "Forbidden Future" The cover features a woman in a long coat carrying suitcases walking down the street as elderly onlookers gossip about her. The synopsis reads as follows: "It isn't easy to return to a small town that was waiting for a chance to gloat over my unhappiness, to fling the bitter words 'I told you so!' in my face, to make me feel unwanted and despised. But I did return, hoping, somehow, to build a new life from the wreckage of my dreams and make my heart whole again. I soon learned, though, that for me happiness was a...Forbidden Future!"
“Forbidden Future.” Girls’ Love Stories #15, January-February 1952

“Forbidden Future” features Della Martin, a divorcee who returns to her hometown on the receiving end of everyone’s scorn. At a social gathering, an old acquaintance named Bill Waters attempts to overstep Della’s sexual boundaries under the presumption that she is promiscuous due to her divorcee status. Handsome heartthrob Dr. Alan Marshall steps in to save her, and after getting to know each other, they quickly fall in love. However, Della is worried about damaging Alan’s goodwill in the neighborhood with her own poor image and intends to skip town, forgoing any thoughts of marrying him. On the drive out of town, Della happens to come across a school bus crash and manages to change everyone’s mind about her after she saves the children from the burning bus — a nurturing, maternal act that practically epitomizes upstanding femininity. With her womanhood restored in the eyes of the public, Della now feels confident enough to pursue a future with her newfound beau!

Scans of the Julia Roberts' Romance Report advice column. The comic features a woman sitting as she writes on a typewriter with a rotary phone next to it.
“Julia Roberts’ Romance Report.” Girls’ Romances #14, April-May 1952.

Often times, romance comics would include features aside from the strips such as self-quizzes and advice columns. If avid readers ever had a burning question on their minds, these columns existed to guide them in the right direction: “What can I do to become prettier? Do you have any tips on navigating the social scene? How do I get my dream man? Am I even the right one for him?” But while they appeared to be written by women for women, similar to the strips, they were in fact…mostly written by men. Because of this dissonance, it would be within good reason to call into question the validity of the advice provided in these columns. Fortunately for the pictured column, the man masquerading as “Julia Roberts” doesn’t provide the worst advice possible. In the first Q&A section, a thirteen year old under the alias “Discouraged” ponders why she and her friends aren’t popular with the boys in her neighborhood, and he first advises her to “stop worrying about boys and start having fun!” (though, it is a bit ironic that this is immediately followed up with advice to emulate other teens and follow beauty trends in order to improve their social standing…)

Excerpt from "One Man in a Million" The first page features the protagonist listing the qualities of her ideal type, and the second page features her bumping into a man in the pool who fits the description.
“One Man in a Million.” Girls’ Love Stories #66, November 1959.

Romance comics had a relatively stable run all the way into the ’70s, but their true golden age occurred during the late ’40s to early ’50s. One simple reason for the decline in their popularity would be the combination of market oversaturation and the audience’s gravitation towards other formats such as television to consume romance media. But more salient would be the disconnect between the messages relayed in these comics and the evolving social and political ideology of its audience. While these comics would be considered incredibly tame and even regressive from a contemporary viewpoint, they drew ire from anti-comic critics who feared that the content was negatively influencing the minds of the public and encouraging delinquent tendencies. Thus, the 1954 Comics Code was enacted, which strictly censored the portrayal of any content that did not promote morality (i.e., representations of women and romance that did not adhere to conservative, patriarchal standards.) As a result, romance comics would fall out of favor because they couldn’t keep up with the ever evolving world. Their depictions of love were no longer relevant, relatable, or realistic enough for readers who were experiencing social revolutions and countercultural movements in real life. By the time restrictions were beginning to loosen and romance comics were able to incorporate more progressive and contemporary themes, the heyday of this genre had already long passed. However, even as much as we’d like to think we’ve progressed, some of the tropes and cliches present in these comics can still be seen in other popular media formats today, thereby reinforcing how deeply ingrained traditional notions of gender and sexuality truly are in our collective culture.

This post was written by Kayla Brooks, Special Collections intern currently enrolled in the historical studies graduate program.

Bibliography

Belliveau, Renée. “‘These Are Not Normal Times’: Masculinity and Femininity in Romance Pulps from the Second World War.” Journal of American Culture 44, no. 1 (January 1, 2021): 22–32.

Gardner, Jeanne Emerson. 2013. “She Got Her Man, but Could She Keep Him? Love and Marriage in American Romance Comics, 1947–1954.” The Journal of American Culture 36 (1): 16–24.

Scott, Naomi. Heart Throbs : The Best of DC Romance Comics. A Fireside Book. Simon and Schuster, 1979.

Wherry, Maryan. “Introduction: Love and Romance in American Culture.” Journal of American Culture 36, no. 1 (March 2013): 1–5.

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Picturing Freedmen’s Schools: Reconstruction Era Photographs from the Ronald Rooks Collection

It should come as no surprise that the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War remains one of the most complicated times in American history. Three separate amendments were added to the constitution, three civil rights acts were passed (although one was later deemed unconstitutional), and innumerable pieces of legislation made their way into committee. These laws primarily served two purposes: firstly, to free enslaved peoples and provide for them assistance, and secondly, to ease tensions between the North and South. One of the most important legislative acts during Reconstruction was the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, which established a governmental agency within the United States Army to serve as a relief system for formerly enslaved peoples under the thirteenth amendment. The Bureau were to provide clothes, shelter, and supplies to formerly enslaved peoples and to protect them from Southern whites who sought to keep them extrajudicially.

Unknown Photographer. Ex-Slave Children and Mrs. Edwards, c. 1863-1865. UMBC Special Collections, 76-13-001

Another key role of the Bureau was that of education. As enslaved peoples were not allowed formal education, it was essential that, once freed, they had access to some form of learning. Without education, African Americans in the South had no way to develop new trades and skills, and were far more vulnerable to violations of their rights. Teachers from the North volunteered through organizations such as the National Freedman’s Relief Association, Gloucester Freedmen’s Aid Society, and numerous religious-based organizations, to move to the South and operate schools for formerly enslaved peoples, known as Freedmen’s schools.

Unknown Photographer. Three ex-slave children, c.1863-1865. UMBC Special Collections, 76-13-014

Funding for these schools proved a much greater challenge than founding them, however, and nationwide fundraising efforts were established, to varying degrees of effectiveness. One of the most effective means, however, is represented by photographs in the Ronald Rooks Collection, housed in UMBC’s Special Collections. Under direction of the National Freedman’s Relief Association, dozens of photographs of formerly enslaved peoples, especially children, along with their teachers, were made and distributed for sale as cartes de visite across the northern United States with the proceeds supporting the Freedmen’s schools.

Anderson, S. Portrait of a young woman, c. 1863-1865. UMBC Special Collections, 76-13-010

A carte de visite is a small photographic print on a paper mount, designed for a large quantity of production. They were inexpensive and didn’t require any sort of special viewing device, and so they proved incredibly popular during the Civil War and early Reconstruction. They functioned not unlike a calling card or trading card, and so they quickly became a very powerful means of propaganda. Photographs of politicians and celebrities could be distributed widely as cartes de visite, and abolitionists such as Sojourner Truth also used them to fundraise and to spread messages about the horrors of slavery. One of the most important images of the time was that of Gordon, who escaped enslavement and allowed his back to be photographed, showing the extensive scarring from whippings endured from slave owners. This image became infamous when it was distributed as a carte de visite and reproduced in the illustrated news magazine Harper’s Weekly. Printed on the verso of the carte de visite was Gordon’s story, which confronted Northern viewers with the true barbarity of his treatment. Pro-slavery propaganda had convinced many Northerners that enslaved peoples were only mistreated if they were disobedient, but Gordon’s story proved that to be a lie. The image and accompanying text proved to be a powerfully persuasive tool in the abolitionist movement, garnering support for the Union Army’s cause.

Seaver, C. Jr. The Peculiar Institution, c. 1863-1865. UMBC Special Collections, 76-13-002.

Some of the cartes de visite sold in support of the Freedmen’s schools were intended to draw sympathy from philanthropic Northern whites, and none proved more effective than those depicting the so-called white slaves. These were children who were born into slavery, but who appeared to be white. Much of the popularity of these images stemmed from Northern fears that should slavery continue unabated, whites would soon become enslaved alongside blacks. As noted by historian Mary Niall Michell, “their images appealed to Victorian sentiments about white rather than black or ‘colored’ girlhood.” Nonetheless, these images provided an immense amount of fundraising for the schools for Freedmen.

Paxon, Charles. A Slave Girl from New Orleans, c. 1863-1865. UMBC Special Collections, 76-13-015.

Art as propaganda has existed for millennia, but photography and mass production took things to a new level, as clearly demonstrated by the carte de visites of Reconstruction-era America. It is impertinent to say that they single-handedly changed the hearts and minds of northerners, but it is also undeniable that they had an impact on our history.

Post by Ben Rybczynski, former Special Collections intern and Gallery Assistant, written Fall 2020.

Bibliography

Mitchell, Mary Niall. “‘Rosebloom and Pure White,’ or so It Seemed” American Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 369-410, accessed March 25, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/30042226

Leisenring, Richard. “Philanthropic Photographs: Fundraising during and after the Civil War” Military Images, Vol. 36, No. 2 (SPRING 2018), pp. 44-57, accessed May 28, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26348670

Parment, Robert D. “SCHOOLS FOR THE FREEDMEN”, Negro History Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 6 (OCTOBER, 1971), pp. 128-132, accessed April 30, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24766513

Grigsby, Darcy Grimaldo. “Negative-Positive Truths”, Representations, Vol. 113, No. 1 (Winter 2011), pp. 16-38, accessed May 28, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2011.113.1.16

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Library Rotunda Exhibit: Early Photobooks by Women Photographers

Sign for exhibit Early Photobooks by Women Photographers

The Special Collections department at UMBC includes the Edward L. Bafford Photography Book Collection; researchers can access historical technical manuals, pamphlets, exhibition catalogs, and photography books that show to development of photography from the 19th century to today. Photobooks as a distinct publication type – typically highlighting photographs with supplemental text as opposed to using photographs as illustration for the main text and with an emphasis on design elements – accelerated in production in the early 20th century with increased publication and distribution methods. Women photographers, and especially women of color, were not given the same access to publication as their male counterparts, and it is not until after secondwave feminism in the 1970s that we see a larger number of photobooks by women.

The examples currently on display through May 10, 2023, were all published in the 1930s and 1940s. These early photobooks show the wide range of photographic style and methods used by women photographers, from pictorialist in the early 1900s to photomontage, documentary style, and even action shots for dance photography. The photographers on display include:

Exhibit case with Anne Brigman photobooks
Exhibit case with Anne Brigman photobooks
  • Berenice Abbott (1898-1991)
  • Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)
  • Anne Brigman (1869-1950)
  • Claude Cahun (1894-1954) and Marcel Moore (1892-1972)
  • Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
  • Barbara Brooks Morgan (1900-1992)

Join Special Collections librarians on Wednesday May 10 from 12-2pm for a hands-on tour of the photobooks. Or visit the Special Collections reading room to work directly with UMBC’s photobook collection!