Ghost Party

If you think trendy Ghost Parties of the late 1800’s were for the idle rich, daughters of a growing middle class and the smart set…you’d be right.

“The other side was close by back then. People didn’t shy away from it.” From 1890 to well past the turn of the century, ghost parties were a thing. In Wisconsin the frivolities begin in the northeast in the wealthy capitals of America’s paper and timber industries - Appleton, Neenah/Menasha, Green Bay and Oshkosh. Below is a typical description of a ghost party in Appleton at Lawrence University (from 1891). Mirrors played a big part of every Halloween and they figured in ghost parties as well - for it was there that the face of a young woman’s future husband would appear at midnight.