Today in History: Halloween

Today in History–October 31–the Library of Congress features Halloween. On this day many Americans celebrate spookiness and becoming someone else by dressing in costumes. To learn more about the origins of this fun-filled holiday and ideas for finding unique Halloween primary sources, visit the Today in History section then click the links below to access more primary sources related to Halloween, ghosts, and witches.

Primary source collections

• LOC Halloween Chambers of Mystery posters available for download
• Halloween images
• Halloween songs & oral histories
• Topics in Chronicling America – Halloween (sample newspaper articles 1861-1922)
• Halloween books
• Halloween Safety Acts (U.S. legislation)
• Witch primary source set
• Spirit photos
• Ghost primary source set
• Costume image set
• Calaveras (skulls) image set
• Bats & Vampires primary source sets

Audio recordings

• Witch songs
• Ghost Story
• Get Ready for Halloween with Jackie Torrence’s “The Golden Arm” Folklife Today October 19, 2018 article + story audio and transcript
• Haunting Tunes for Halloween Folklife Today podcast October 29, 2018

Sheet music

• Jack o’lantern man
• Grandmother tells a ghost-story
• Denny Malone’s ghost
• The ghost of Mike Walsh
• The peanut gal’s ghost
• The white ghost
• Blue-eyed witch galop
• Overture; Witch and wizard
• Witch waltzes
• The Amber witch march
• Witches’ dance
• Witches’ dance (Paganini)
• The Witches carnival Dance fantastique
• Witches dream
• Witches flight

Articles

• 10 Stories: Scary Stuff! Chronicling America Library of Congress blog October 29, 2015
• Americans Celebrate Halloween America’s Library
• Anoka, Minnesota: The Halloween Capital of the World America’s Library
• Arachnophilia: Celebrating Spiders on Halloween Inside Adams October 30, 2014
• Bats: Spooky Superheroes? Folklife Today October 27, 2016
• Bessie Jones Tells a Spooky Story: ‘Married to the Devil’ Folklife Today October 11, 2017
• Celebrating Halloween by Exploring a “Danse Macabre” Teaching with the Library of Congress October 31, 2017
• Caught Our Eyes: Most Original Costume Picture This October 31, 2012
• Creatures of the Night: Bats Inside Adams October 31, 2012
• Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and caldron bubble… In Custodia Legis October 31, 2011
• The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows American Folklife Center
• Ghost Stories in Song for Halloween Folklife Today October 19, 2017
• A Ghostly Image: Spirit Photographs Library of Congress blog October 24, 2017
• A Gorey Story Library of Congress blog March 15, 2016
• The Hair-Raising Tale of ‘The Witch Who Kept a Hotel Folklife Today October 24, 2017.
• Halloween Primary Sources to Shiver and Shake Up Your Teaching in the Primary Grades Teaching with the Library of Congress October 27, 2016
• Happy Halloween! In the Muse October 30, 2010
• Neewollah America’s Library
• Pic of the Week: Halloween Edition In the Muse blog October 31, 2011
• Primary Sources Across the Curriculum: Connecting the Spider Webs Teaching with the Library of Congress October 5, 2017
• Revealing the Presence of Ghosts In Custodia Legis October 31, 2012
• Spooky Stories for Halloween Folklife Today October 29, 2015
• Welcome to Folklife Today: Halloween Folklife Today October 30, 2013
• What’s Good Form When Receiving Ghosts New-York Tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), 21 Aug. 1921