Archives Online at Indiana University

View options:

Search within this document:

 

Want to learn more?

  • Do you have a question about this collection?
  • Would you like to view the original items in this collection?
  • Are you seeking permission to publish or reproduce items in this collection?

Please contact the holding repository: University Archives, IU Bloomington

Email: archives@indiana.edu

Bookmark and Share

Indiana University Folklore Institute student Halloween journals, 1982

A Guide to the Records at the Indiana University Archives

Finding aid prepared by Jessie Riddle

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Indiana University, Bloomington. Folklore Institute.

Title
Indiana University Folklore Institute student Halloween journals, 1982

Collection No.
C619

Extent
1 cubic foot (1 box)

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
The Folklore Institute at Indiana University began as an eight-week program in the summer of 1942 and received departmental status in the College of Arts and Sciences with an independent faculty in 1963. This collection consists mainly of journals that students created about their Halloween experiences and traditions for the month of October as part of Institute professor John McDowell's Folklore 101 in Fall 1982. These journals were the foundation for McDowell's 1985 article on costuming traditions among college students in Bloomington. The journals, which often included newspaper clippings and event fliers, covered topics include urban legends about Halloween candy tampering as well as the students' experiences with costume selection and preparation, folk and commercialized Halloween products, decorations, entertainment, and food.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Advance notice required.

Administrative History

The Folklore Institute at Indiana University began as an eight-week program in the summer of 1942 under the directorship of Professor Stith Thompson. From June 29 to August 22 of that year residential and visiting faculty taught courses, which carried university credit, on a number of topics. Course topics ranged from an introductory course on folklore to field collecting and recording to the folk tale and similar forms. Others covered folk song and folk music as well as Native American folklore.

The Folklore Institute grew into a stable research branch of Indiana University's College of Arts and Sciences in 1949 and received departmental status with an independent faculty in 1963; however, the Graduate School first listed M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Folklore for the academic year of 1949-1950. Since the academic year of 1971-1972 the Institute has offered an undergraduate degree in folklore as well. The Institute has also had a long history with research and teaching interests in ethnomusicology. In 2000 the Ethnomusicology Institute was created and merged with the Folklore Institute to become the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, which now offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in both fields.

During the fall semester of 1982, students in Dr. John McDowell's course Folklore 101 were assigned to record their observations about Halloween each day from the beginning of October to the beginning of November. The journals were then analyzed by McDowell for the 1985 article "Halloween Costuming among Young Adults in Bloomington, Indiana: A Local Exotic" in Indiana Folklore. The article states that McDowell and the course A.I.s collected about 360 journals and archived around 100 of them, although this collection contains less than that. Describing the process of collecting the materials, McDowell writes, "Students were encouraged to write detailed entries describing each day's activities relating to the Halloween season. On balance, this experiment using folklore students as informants/collectors was quite successful. While some of the journals were perfunctory, others contained pithy and sometimes poignant observations and descriptions. Taken as an aggregate, they provide a strikingly forthright account of Bloomington's Halloween in the words of the participants themselves (1985, 2)."

Arrangement

This collection is organized into two series: Unaccessioned Journals and Guide Materials and Halloween Student Journals.

Scope and Content Note

The collection is organized into two series. The first series, Unaccessioned Journals and Guide Materials, is arranged alphabetically. The folder "Halloween Project" contains a list of references to Halloween in Sylvia Grider's 1976 dissertation, which examined 6th grade students' supernatural narratives in Indiana. The other folders include journals that were labeled as "unaccessioned," lists of student names, and suggestions for how to use the journals as a research tool. It is not clear whether all of the journals contained in the folders labeled as "unaccessioned" were intended to be separated from the other journals in the collection, although the "instructions for use" and McDowell's article state that each A.I. selected the best projects to accession into the archives.

The Halloween Student Journals series is also arranged alphabetically. Each folder contains a student journal, which often includes newspaper clippings and fliers from local events. The responses reflect a mix of traditions that are still apparent in Bloomington and concerns that were specific to that time. For example, almost all of the students reference in their journals the "Tylenol murders", an incident in September 1982 where seven people were killed as a result of drug tampering. Based on comments and newspaper clippings from these journals, that event led to a sharp increase in the prevalence of annual legends and concerns about tampering with Halloween candy. Other common topics addressed in the journals include popular culture events like the premier of the movie Halloween III, costume preparation, and other Halloween traditions, including oral narratives, foodways, local events, and decorations. It is noteworthy that most students seamlessly move back and forth between folk or vernacular Halloween traditions and more commercial Halloween products and popular culture as they describe their daily activities.

  • Indexing Terms

  • The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

Related Material

Related photographs may be available in the University Archives Photographs Database.

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information
Accession: 2003/055
Usage Restrictions
The donor(s) of this collection have not transferred their copyrights for the materials to the Trustees of Indiana University. For more information, please contact the Indiana University Archives staff.

The Indiana University Archives respects the intellectual property rights of others and does not claim any copyrights for non-university records, materials in the public domain, or materials for which we do not hold a Deed of Gift. Responsibility for the determination of the copyright status of these materials rests with those persons wishing to reuse the materials. Researchers are responsible for securing permission from copyright owners and any other rights holders for any reuse of these materials that extends beyond fair use or other statutory limitations.

Digital reproductions of archival materials from the Indiana University Archives are made available for noncommercial educational and research purposes only. If you are the copyright holder for any of the digitized materials and have questions about its inclusion on our site, please contact the Indiana University Archives staff.

Preferred Citation
[item], Indiana University Folklore Institute student Halloween journals, Collection C619, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
Provenance
Transferred from the Indiana University Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology in 2003.
Processing Information
Pages of the journals displaying grade (usually the first or last page) were redacted.

Processed by Jessie Riddle.

Completed in 2019

Container List


Series: Box 1 Unaccessioned journals and guide materials, 1982

Halloween Project – Subject Index

Instructions for use and unaccessioned journals

Unaccessioned papers and journals from Gail Matthews, A.I.

"From unaccessioned papers/journals folder"

Series: Box 1 Halloween student journals, 1982

Halloween Project – Subject Index

Karen Boda

John Brandt

Cindy Bryan

Laura L. Cline

Mike Craig

Alan Dayton

Carolyn D. Debro(?)

Ellen Dibono

Cindy Dinyes(?)

Chris Dugan

Lorna Eagle

Joe E. Ford

Richard Judson Fuchs

Steve Givan

Brian Greenman

Brad Harris

Teresa Hendrickson

Laurie Hettmer

Liz Kaznak

Robb Lanham

Tim Luker

Paul Markey

Diana McDonald

Julie Milliken

Artice Michelle Mitchell

Michael Pannock

Betsy Perkin

Dan Raffe

Lara Roslansky

Angie Sparks

Barry Tamarkin

Judson Tolmen

Unnamed Journal

Lisa Wauterlek

James Wentz

Linda Walcoff

Accessibility Help