Under the light of star projectors in the Alabama Museum of Natural History and old-timey lanterns at the Gorgas House Museum, the two museums held “Haunting at the Museum” on Tuesday night. The event, open to community members and students alike, took place at both museums with the shared theme of “Otherworldly Encounters.”
At the Alabama Museum of Natural History, families and students could participate in different hands-on activities across eleven tables from different organizations.
Kristen Harrell, the museum’s education outreach coordinator, said this was her third year planning the annual Halloween event.
“The Gorgas House is doing a spiritualism exhibit this year, but we can’t do ghosts and specters and spiritualism at this museum, so we thought of other phenomena we could highlight with science,” Harrell said. “We have the Hodges Meteorite and the Philco Radio that were just put on an renovated exhibit in May, so we thought this would be a good time to highlight otherworldly, extraterrestrial phenomena paired with the focus on spiritualism over there.”
Harrell said the themes for previous years had included “Creepy Cryptids and Fantastic Fossils” as well as “Garden Tea Party.”
“We’re doing more space colors this year, and our programming is focused around aliens, astrobiology and extremophiles, as well as the science of physics, astronomy and magnetic levitation,” Harrell said. “We’ve been able to partner with more of our physics teams on campus, which is a lot of fun.”
Caitlin Strafaci, a senior studying physics and vice president of the Society of Physics Students, ran the activity table at the event.
“One of our demos that we have here is called the Van de Graaff generator, and when you touch it it makes your hair stand on end. It’s been really fun seeing the kids freak out when they feel their hair start to stand up,” Strafaci said. “It’s great to be able to show kids that physics isn’t this boring, stuffy thing but something that can be really cool.”
Meanwhile, across the quad, the Gorgas House Museum was hosting activity tables outside and tours of the house that focused on the paranormal legends of the Gorgas family.
Sonya Harwood-Johnson, the director of the Gorgas House, said that in addition to the “Haunting” event, the house does a special exhibit for the month of October.
“This is our third year of doing a unique Halloween exhibit,” Harwood-Johnson said. “This year it’s on spiritualism. Our halloween exhibits are all student projects, the students do all the research, they curate it and they lead the tours. We have anywhere from 20 to 30 students who do everything around the house.”
Harwood-Johnson said Halloween is always the house’s busiest time of the year, and the turnout this year was especially good.
“I think when it comes to historic house museums, there’s a stigma that we’re closed off or not accessible to younger audiences, but this event is really cool because it allows us to open up for a wide range of people,” Harwood-Johsnon said.
The tables outside the museum let community members and their children try to write with ink dip pens, seal letters with wax and type on antique typewriters that Harwood-Johnson said the house got by partnering with a staff member from the libraries. She said she credits the partnerships and activities for bringing people out to the museums.
“We are so grateful for the people that come out during their busy week to learn a little bit about history, spooks and specters,” Harwood-Johnson said. “That’s always our goal when it comes to Halloween events, with both Alabama Museum of Natural History and the Gorgas house: You’re going to learn something, but you’re going to have fun while doing it.”
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