Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library's
Victoria College Material Culture Internship Project by Sophia Arts
Who am I?
just a girl who likes ghosts
A young woman is sitting in a chair reading a story which has made her nervous. Engraving by R. Graves after R.W. Buss. The Ghost Story. London: Virtue & Co.
Hello, my name is Sophia. I am an archaeology and material culture student at the University of Toronto and despite popular belief I do not believe in ghosts. I just love the idea of ghosts and the culture that emerged around that belief. When I heard about the Psychical Research Collection at the Fisher Library, I immediately wanted to do my internship research on it. I was, after all, the official ghost representative of my allegedly haunted residence in previous years.
Due to circumstances around COVID-19, I was only able to visit the collection in person once. However, the hour I spent alone in the massive, labyrinthine, and spooky basement of the library looking at books about magic and ghosts was one of the most wonderful hours of my life.
Despite the fact I do not believe in any spiritual phenomenon, I will share with you the time I met the ghost of Charles Dickens. When I was 10, my family went on a vacation to England. While we were there, we stayed in an inn in Cambridge that Charles Dickens allegedly used to stay and write in. While I was falling asleep, I saw a figure of a man in the doorway. I assumed it was my dad and called out, however he was sleeping in the bed next to me.
I would also like to thank my supervisor from the library Alexandria Carter, and my professor for this internship Cathie Sutton.