Spiritualism As Resistance: Spirits at Stowe

Special Events

Spiritualism as Resistance

Spirits at Stowe

January 5, 2024

FOR FIVE NIGHTS ONLY

SPIRITS AT STOWE RETURNS

Back by popular demand, the Stowe Center will offer five evening tours in the dusk hour until Daylight Savings.

Tour groups are limited to 14 people; tour begins at 4:00 pm
Cost: Adults $20; Seniors $15; Under 17 $10

Join our Spirits at Stowe tour as we delve into the historic social and political context of the 19^th century and explore the role of Spiritualism in the lives of reformers, suffragists, and Black activists.

Like many people grappling with loss in the post-Civil War era, Harriet Beecher Stowe- a mother who outlived four of her seven children- found solace in the Spiritualist belief that the spirits of the dead moved and communicated freely in the world of the living and embraced Spiritualism even as she affirmed her commitment to mainstream religion. The Spirits at Stowe tours will allow us to consider in greater depth a less-frequently explored part of Harriet’s life such as child mortality and her complex, even fluid, relationship with organized religion, especially her father’s religion. The tour expands on the life of Isabella Beecher Hooker, allowing us to speak with nuance about the variety of social justice approaches, from Isabella’s more radical support of suffrage to Harriet’s more tepid position. The tour and lectures also open up conversations about Spiritualism as a tool of resistance for radicals and reformers, such as enslaved people and Black (and) women activists by affording opportunities to speak the “unspeakable” via communication with “the other side.” The tour also opens conversation about class inasmuch as Spiritualism offered vocations that brought people into the parlors of social classes they otherwise would never enter. The transgressing of class boundaries is a social justice issue that comes up more tangentially in our regularly offered tours.

During the tour, the Stowe House is “set” to reflect a Spiritualist setting. It takes place later in the evening and lit by (electric) candlelight. Participants on the tour observe and engage with the materials of Spiritualism including a planchette on view, Isabella’s “Spirit Book” in which she recorded the names of those who she felt she communicated with through Spiritualism, images of Spiritualist books and photography to illustrate the images and words associated with Spiritualism, and quotes about Spiritualism. Tour participants will consider the possibilities, limitations, and contradictions of Spiritualist beliefs.

Location Stowe Center, Visitor Center

Doors Open 4:00 pm

Program 4:00 - 5:00 pm

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.