A ghost story for Halloween*

*Brought to you in part by the Detroit Mercy libraries.

For more than a century, a ghostly spectre known as Green Eyes has haunted the Chickamauga Battlefield in Tennessee. Writer Daniel Jackson, explores the legend in an article for Pulse, the Chattanooga, Tenn. His research led him to University of Detroit Mercy’s online archive where he found a history and theories about the legend of Green Eyes in the James T. Callow Folklore Archive. You can read the article here.

The University of Detroit Mercy Digital Folklore Archive was founded in 1964 byprofessors Frank M. Paulsen and James T. Callow and donated to the University in 2009. The archive contains more than 42,000 folklore traditions taken from field notes gathered by Detroit Mercy students as part of their course work in Introduction to Folklore, Studies in Folklore, Folk Groups and Folklore Archiving. The archive covers information gathered between 1964 and 1993, including the Peabody field note collection containing approximately 12,000 entries from the Southeast, where stories of Green Eyes abound.

The archive contains urban legends; ethnic jokes; fraternity, sorority and scout songs; drinking games; initiation pranks, superstitions, customs and lore and is searchable. Researchers wishing to use the physical collection should contact the McNichols Campus Library research desk at 313-993-1071 to make an appointment.

But there is a warning: The contents of the Archive are historical and indicative of the culture of earlier time periods. Some entries may be considered offensive. Be assured the contents do not reflect the views of the University of Detroit Mercy or its mission.

For other folktales and scary things, check out the archive here.

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