The Willard House & Clock Museum will indulge your dark side during the spooky season on Thursday, Oct. 30 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the museum, 11 Willard Street, North Grafton. Tom Kelleher current Historian and Curator of Mechanical Arts at Old Sturbridge Village will give a talk on Vampirism in New England. 

There was a belief in rural New England (mostly Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont) that consumption (we know it as tuberculosis) was somehow spread by evil spirits living in dead bodies. People hoped that by disturbing or mutilating a corpse the evil spirit would not infect a living family member. 

Nohting about corpses rising from graves , bats or sucking blood.

Kelleher has worn many hats both literally and figuratively for over 40 years at Sturbridge Village. A past president of the international Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums, he regularly teaches and demonstrates at museums, parks, and historical societies around the country.  Tom holds a Master’s in history from the University of Connecticut, and writes often for a variety of magazines and journals, including Early American Life.