On Long Island, New York, the village of Stony Brook seems trapped in time. Meet one of its oldest residents, who once communicated with spirits, and now finds himself one as well. A tale of one of America’s first great artists, William Sidney Mount, the early days of Spiritualism, and a dash of Hell House, in this piece from a Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries.
Archive for the ‘New York’ Category
Curiosities
Mysteries
A Gothic Manifesto
In the eighteenth century a new form of literature emerged, the dark twin of the Romantic movement, which became known as Gothic. It dealt with ghosts and the supernatural, often along with haunted houses and castles, madness, poisonings and bloody murder, curses and dark secrets never fully spoken. Along the way, the term became detached from literature, just as Gothic authors had taken it from Gothic architects, and it became an adjective which describes a dark mood of nearly any sort, a feeling of melancholy sometimes hinting, sometimes explicitly supernatural. The world we live in certainly has a long history of darkness, of undefined creatures roaming the woodlands and moors, of haunted houses, family curses, madness and gruesome murder. Here we explore these subjects and others not as scientists, but as artists and collectors of tales. One characteristic which is often associated with the Gothic, is of dealings with events that happened in the past. Details are sketchy and often never revealed during the lives of those involved, and over time the stories become legends and myth, and as such the stories become fluid - there are no right or wrong versions. What we hope to do is take you to the places associated with these events, tell you the tale and for you to say "yeah, I could see that happening here." And if your face turns ashen, your hands begin to shake and you find yourself sleeping with the light on, so much the better. Please click here to read more ...
Cabinet Master
Your guide to all things creepy, Todd Atteberry has been weird for most of his adult life. Responsible for the bulk of the writing and photography on this site, Todd (i.e. me) does this to purge his black soul of all that is contained therein, and to sell the occasional fine art print. Which really are things of beauty. Trust me. Would this face lie?
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