Dave Nunnally, curator. Spirit Boards, Located at The Soul Asylum. Alton, IL. Permanent Exhibit. Items courtesy of the Erskine Collection.
Reminiscent of the smell and feeling of entering the unusual storage room at your grandparent’s house, The Soul Asylum, advertised as a “curiosity museum” located in Alton, IL presents various oddities, curiosities, and haunted histories for visitors. Recently procured and renovated in March of 2022 by curator Dave Nunnally, the site boasts a wide variety of subject matter from Ouija Boards to serial killers, devices meant for torture to local history within Alton, including their own oddity, Robert Pershing Wadlow. The Soul Asylum and its Spirit Boards exhibit show visitors that the United States’ culture and history also contains spiritual novelties, stories of hauntings, haunted objects, and “odd” people and occurrences; the interest in this kind of subject matter has pervaded into today’s society but originally arose and spread from capitalist ventures to make money.
Titled Spirit Boards, this exhibit provides visitors with a brief history of Ouija/spirit boards within the US, and its connection to spiritualism. According to the labels within the exhibit, the first Ouija boards were produced by the Kennard Novelty Company in 1890 and 1891. While at first appearing to be simply a history of the occult, this exhibit explains the direct connection that Ouija boards have with patents along with capitalists, industrialists, and spiritualists. The rise of the occult and Ouija boards was because of widespread interest in these items, not simply misbehaving children and teens. The most fascinating aspect of this exhibit is how invested Americans were with spiritualism, it connects Mary Todd Lincoln to the rise of this phenomena in the US using séances and attempts to speak to the dead. The exhibit claims spirit board use coincides with the rise of telegraph (1844) and telephonic (1876) systems, and the desire for immediate communication.
The design, font, color, and planchettes used through the evolution of the Ouija board are laid out in a somewhat chronological order through the shelves of this exhibits two display cases. While most of the case is filled with Ouija boards and their coordinating labels, miscellaneous items that are not related, and arguably detract from the overall exhibit, are also present in the display cases. One such item is a first edition copy of The Exorcist. This lack of cohesion and strange inclusion makes little sense in this portion of the museum.
The entrance to the Soul Asylum is guarded by two iron gates, after paying a fee of $8.00 to enter, visitors are open to explore the large rectangular room and all of its exhibits. Immediately to the right of the entrance is a table adorned with a Ouija board and a planchette for guests to commune in front of the Spirit Boards exhibit. Following the same wall is an exhibit on serial killers, then a large portion of the room is dedicated to torture devices. Be aware, some of this content is not suitable for children. To the left of the entrance are two church pews and a few exhibitions of Alton’s haunted history. There is also an exhibit with a focus on Robert Wadlow, Alton’s “gentle giant.”
Spirit Boards subject matter is interesting, and the items used for display within the cases show just the wide variety and popularity they had within the US. It connects these items curious usage with a rich and complicated history that is compelling to read. However, this exhibit is shoved within two cases with various items and imagery that do not belong, and do not fit into the story that is being presented. Item labels are also curling or bent because they do not have the proper mounting within the cases. The spacing of the actual Ouija boards, planchettes, and images would be beneficial, as well as the removal of unnecessary objects.
Visited on June 26th, 2022, this exhibit provided an interesting detour to my visit to downtown Alton. Located among other shops that also have peculiar natures to them, it fit in and allowed visitors to peruse a variety of items and subjects that are not typical in a more conventional museum. Seeing the historical connections, especially the popularity and cultural place that spirit boards had within the US was fascinating because there is not widespread knowledge about them now other than information related to horror-media. This museum, and the Spirit Boards exhibit, connect a more haunted history with the quaint town of Alton. Strange and unusual history is in fact a part of American culture and US (and world) history itself. This exhibit is well worth $8.00, so bring the family to try out the replica guillotine and stocks, and say hello to Katze, the 51-year-old taxidermized cat who greets visitors at the museum entrance.
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