Costumes at Halloween Party (1936) - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

It was a dark and stormy night in Central Illinois for last night's Halloween festivities. But the miserable weather did little to keep ghosts and goblins off the streets. Intrepid as they were soggy, they had places to go, people to trick, candy to collect, and costumes to show off.

By the looks of this photo, sophomores at the University of St. Francis had the right idea during their 1936 Halloween party: staying inside, high and dry. And their costumes are pretty different from today's Miley Cyrus and Batman impersonations. Aside from Moustached Mouse Man in a Derby Cap and Googly-eyed Lady, most of the students seem to be displaying party favors rather than unique and elaborate costumes. Several students have hats decorated with cutouts of cats, jack-o-lanterns, owls, and skulls and crossbones, but otherwise their dress doesn't appear terribly out of place.

It’s all pretty straightforward and harmless, right? Maybe… until you see this other photo of the same group of students. The dimmed lighting of the dining room casts an erie shadow of Moustached Mouse Man on one curtain, and there’s a spookily undefined emblem on the other. But what really gets me about both these photos is one of the students. It’s the woman sitting at the far left in the dinner photo, and at the far right in the sitting room photo. In both cases she looks away from the camera, and in the dining room photo she is focused on handling a small toy of what looks like some predatory, four-legged animal. And she’s pointing its fangs directly at the camera! This student is unsettling to me, and because of that I think she represents the spirit of Halloween (the unknown) way better than the sugar high I usually experience on this holiday.

Anne Shelley, Music/Multimedia Librarian, Illinois State University

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