2020 Poster Sessions
Haunting Campus from the Library:
Creating a Popular Ghost Tour Using the University Archives

 

Intended Audience

Community Engagement & Programming Departments, Special Services Departments, Marketing & Media Departments
 

Poster Summary and Objectives

In October of 2019, Engagement and Learning Librarian Hunter Murphy teamed up with Archivist Kelly Larson to give Stetson University’s first annual Haunted History Tour. Part institutional history and part good, old-fashioned storytelling, the tour proved immediately popular among students and others in the campus community.

Acting as tour guides, we shared some of Stetson’s most enduring ghost lore while dispelling persistent rumors, and telling true stories of the University’s past. Intended to be both spooky and educational, our tour placed special emphasis on the sources of the stories we told, as well as the available evidence for the historical information we offered. In doing so, we asked participants to consider how we learn about our local history, and how ghost stories, legends, and rumors can be perpetuated over the course of decades. Not only was the tour well-attended, but surveys showed overwhelmingly positive feedback, with most respondents reporting that the tour was not only fun, but encouraged them to consider sources of information, and even sparked their interest in the University Archives.

This poster presentation will explore how and why we added the Haunted History tour to the duPont-Ball Library’s usual programming. Our objectives are to discuss the research, planning, and preparation that made our tour successful, while sharing the challenges we faced, lessons we learned, and our plans for improving the tour next year. We hope to offer advice and inspiration for other programming collaborations between librarians and special collections staff.

 

Presenters

Hunter Murphy- duPont-Ball Library, Stetson University

  • In a library career spanning twenty years, Hunter Murphy has presented widely on library and literary topics, including presentations at the Jefferson County (AL) Public Library Association, the Alabama Library Association, Birmingham Public Library, Lynn University, and the Louisiana Book Festival. Most recently, he co-presented “Use Your Users” at the Southeast Florida Library Information Network’s 2019 Annual Library Conference in Miami, FL.

Kelly Larson- duPont-Ball Library, Stetson University

  • Kelly Larson is the Stetson University Archivist in the duPont-Ball Library. She earned her B.A. in History and M.L.I.S. with a concentration in Archives from Louisiana State University. She has taught information literacy to a variety of students and community members, published and presented often on the subject of local history, using primary sources, and many topics related to special collections, historical research, and libraries. She served as the college archivist, reference librarian and an adjunct professor of public history at The Sage Colleges in Troy, New York. Her wealth of knowledge and passion for outreach have made her an integral part of the library and the Haunted History Tour initiative.