Museums are the perfect setting for a family-friendly outing, but haunted museums sound like the perfect setting for a night of fright where lonely specters wander the halls, statues appear to move on their own, and spelled artifacts curse visitors. In several art museums around the country, staff and visitors have reported otherworldly visions and encounters from sightings of the ghosts of former employees, to apparitions of artists among their works.
Photo: Jeffry Strean
Haunted Heartland: The Cleveland Museum of Art
After retirement, museum employees sometimes return to visit the new exhibits—but one former gallery director continued to roam the halls of the Cleveland Museum of Art even after his death! Museum staff regularly saw a man in tweed jacket carrying a folder tucked under his arm in halls of the oldest gallery. While sifting through photographs in the museum’s archives, the staff was astonished to find an old photograph of the man that they so often saw but never spoke to—William Mathewson Milliken, who had died years before in 1978. In a state of disbelief, they realized that they had been sharing their offices with a ghost.
The Cleveland Museum of Art’s reputation for ghost-sightings extends to celebrities as well. In October 2015, the museum opened its blockbuster exhibition, Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. The show received substantial press, but one photograph in particular made headlines. During the exhibit’s installation, staff member Jeffrey Strean snapped a picture of the show. Upon reviewing his photograph, he was shocked to find a figure standing on the balcony. Certain that the man hadn’t been there when he made the picture—and knowing that the museum was closed at the time—Strean could find no explanation for the mysterious apparition. Staff members were even more shocked at the figure’s uncanny resemblance to Monet himself. Wearing a brimmed hat and sporting a long white beard, the man appears to be surveying the installation. Skeptics claim that the photograph was a publicity stunt, but other museum employees reported having seen this specter elsewhere.
The Ghost of the Albemarle
In Elizabeth City, NC, The Rose Buddies are a volunteer group whose members greet visitors to the Museum of the Albemarle at the waterfront entrance. Fred Fearing was a co-founder of the Rose Buddies and at 93-years-old he swore that when he died, he would be buried in the cemetery next door and haunt the museum that he so loved. Upon his death in 2007, Fearing bequeathed to the museum many artifacts from his extensive personal collection. Perhaps it is these artifacts that keep him connected to the place. Among his many donations, an antique bed is often reported by museum staff and visitors to show an impression as though someone had just been sitting there.
A few months after Fearing’s passing, a visitor chatted about the history of the Albemarle with an elderly man who explained the Rose Buddies’ many traditions. After excusing herself from the conversation to see the exhibits, the woman told front desk attendant, Lisa Doepkr, about her conversation with the man and that he had been a little abrupt with her. Doepkr was shocked to hear her describe Fred Fearing to a tee—gruff personality and all. Fearing’s spirit continues to look after the Albemarle. Curators and exhibit designers often find that items seem to appear from storage exactly when they are needed for upcoming exhibitions, an unexplained phenomenon that they attribute to their ghostly assistant.
Charles Street Jail #3, Stephen Sheffield
The Spirits of San Antonio
Something spooky is going on in San Antonio, TX. Located near the Alamo, the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures is known for its collections of manuscripts, historical photographs, and ghosts. One of the institute’s most dedicated visitors was Gerald Fitz, often seen in his favorite blue overalls counting out his change by the back entrance. One morning, a museum employee rushed by Fitz on her way into work, nodding a greeting as she passed him and noticed he was more dressed up than usual. She asked her co-workers if they knew why Fitz was wearing a suit and blue tie instead of his trademark overalls. Stunned by her question, her colleagues informed her that she couldn’t have seen him because their favorite regular had died the Friday before. Later in the day, a janitor also reported seeing Fitz in his suit. Some speculate that he wanted to make one final visit to his favorite museum. The ghost of Gerald Fitz is one of the institute’s most popular ghost stories, but Fitz has not been seen in the two decades since.
While Gerald Fitz seems to have moved on, the ghost of R. Henderson Shuffler is said to still reside in the library. As the museum’s original director, he lived in the apartment annex. Shuffler was known for his love of books and smoking a cherry tobacco-filled pipe. To this day his apparition can be spotted in the library accompanied by the thick smell of cherry smoke.
Some spirits are connected to specific items in the museum’s collection. Reports claim that an indigenous woman’s spirit is connected to the Cato Native American pottery on permeant display in a specialized section of the museum known as “the cave.” Security guards report seeing this mysterious woman standing about five-feet-four inches sporting a jet-black ponytail and wearing a buckskin dress. Sometimes she calls their names and sometimes she moves objects. When the exhibit opened, the museum brought in a Cato shaman to conduct a sweetgrass blessing for souls who had attached themselves to the artifacts to move on to the afterlife. It seems that one soul stayed behind.
This article first appeared in Issue 13, The Museum Issue. Purchase here.
Amelia Childs is the producer and co-host of the podcast Ghost Hunting New England.