Lake Geneva Local History Series - Calling All Spirits - Spiritualism in Victorian America

Spend this winter getting better acquainted with the past.  The Wisconsin Historical Society presents a six-week-long series focused on the local history of Geneva Lake.  This program will help participants get a better understanding of the rich and varied history of the region during the grand resort era (the 1180s - 1920s).  Instructors are from the Society's Black Point Estate and Gardens location.

February 8th - Calling All Spirits - Spiritualism in Victorian America

This new program guides participants through the uncanny

world of nineteenth-century American spiritualism. More

than an occult parlor game, this was a new religion, which

channeled the voices of the dead, linked the present with the

past, and conjured new worldly and other-worldly futures.

Tracing the persistence of magic in an emergent culture of

secularism, Desimone brings a once-marginalized practice to

the center of 19th-century American cultural history. An

emphasis will be placed on Wisconsin's role within the

Spiritualism movement