Museum offering special immersive experience

FREMONT — Learn about the uncanny world of 19th-century American Spiritualism during Calling All Spirits, a special immersive experience offered on two October nights in the historic Hayes Home at the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums site in Fremont. More than an occult parlor game, Victorian spiritualism was a new religion that channeled the voices of the dead, linked the present with the past and conjured new worldly and otherworldly futures. During Calling All Spirits: Spiritualism in the Victorian Era, event leader Dave Desimone, of Wisconsin, will cover everything from the Fox sisters, often credited with creating the first major wave of Spiritualism in America, to the Morris Pratt Institute, the first school dedicated to teaching Spiritualism in America, located in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Participants will be seated around the dining room table of the Hayes Home, similarly to how seances were carried out during the Victorian era. Calling All Spirits is offered from 5:30-7 p.m. and 7:30-9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 23. This event will take place in the dining room, so seating is limited to 20 people. Advance tickets are required. There is a cost to attend for both members and non-members. People can learn more by visiting rbhayes.org and then searching under the "events" tab. While this program will cover spiritualism and ritualism of the 19th century, there will not be any actual seance or attempts to conjure any spirits. It is purely a historical program. Desimone is the director of Black Point Estate and Gardens in Wisconsin. He has a bachelor's degree in history from Youngstown State University and a master's degree in public history from Kent State University. He worked for the Ohio History Connection Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron and the Cleveland Botanical Garden before moving to Wisconsin in 2013.