New Cornell witchcraft collection opens on Halloween
ITHACA -- Celebrate the spookiest of holidays with a visit to Cornell's campus that, although scary enough as it is while students are in session, will feature a display on early sorcery memorabilia.
The exhibit will open with a free reception on October 31, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Kroch Library. It's called "The World Bewitch'd" explores the roots of the belief in witchcraft, along with the violent campaigns against thousands of perceived witches centuries ago. Cornell's co-founder, Andrew Dickson White, had collected manuscripts and documents in a personal collection, which was then turned into the Cornell Witchcraft Collection along with other pieces of topical information from around the world to make the world's biggest witchcraft collection in North America.
Highlights include the first book on witchcraft ever printed, court documents from witch trials, along with spellbooks and photos of purported witches on broom flights.
"A.D. White was always collecting things that made us think, whether they were anti-slavery documents or they focused on people on the margins," Anne R. Kenney, a former Kroch University librarian who has served as co-curator for the exhibition. "This collection has profound repercussions in today's world, where the persecution of the defenseless is alive and well."
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