History Sticks With Us: Past Stickers

Have you seen Seeping Sally?

Our special edition Halloween sticker features Earlham's campus ghost story, Seeping Sally.  Seeping Sally, sometimes called Seeping Suzy, was a cadaver acquired, according to a 1988 edition of the Earlham Word, in 1952 and used for anatomy demonstrations in the biology department.

There are varying accounts of what happened to the body to create the nickname Seeping Sally. One is that something went wrong during the preservation process, turning the body to jelly. Other accounts say she became mummified. Needless to say, "Sally's" remains could no longer be used for classes. 

It's a mystery why they didn't immediately give her a proper burial. One explanation is that her identity was unknown, somehow making it impossible to bury her. Whatever the explanation, she allegedly stayed on campus. One story claimed her remains were stored in the basement of Old Earlham Hall, which is featured on the sticker. Another claimed Bundy. A third said Sally was stored down in one of the steam tunnels.  (The tunnels connected with the basement of Old Earlham Hall, so there really wasn't a distinction in most people's minds between the two.)

By the 1980s, many students apparently thought it was great fun to go down into the steam tunnels and visit Sally. Some students allegedly found the place where she’d been bricked up, leaving poor Sally’s ghost to roam “the tunnels confused, trying to get back home.” Needless to say, students going down into the tunnels looking for her finally led to Sally being given a decent burial some time around 1993 or 1994.

Unfortunately it is impossible for us to verify any of these tales. We are fairly certain she existed since there were people on campus in the 1950s who verified it. However, we have never come across any records about her in the archive beyond what has appeared in campus newspapers.

How to get your Halloween sticker:

You have two options to get the Special Edition Halloween sticker.

Option 1: The College Archives and Office of Religious Life will be hosting a special event! Join us and retired history professor Tom Hamm for a Cemetery Walk in Earlham Cemetery on Tuesday, October 31st, beginning at 2:30 PM. We will meet in front of Lilly Library. You will get your sticker at the end of the walk.

Option 2: Participate in an old Earlham tradition and find the glass tombstone! Underclassmen in years gone by would often be told they had to go into Earlham Cemetery to find it. If you need a hint, find Jenny in the College Archives (basement Lilly), and she'll point you in the right direction. Take a picture when you find it (preferably with you in it!), and bring the picture to the College Archives (basement Lilly) or the Office of Religious Life (Virginia Cottage) and get your sticker. (Showing us the picture on your phone is fine.)

The original photograph:

The photos and images we use for the stickers come from items in the Friends Collection and College Archives. We don't have any photographs of Seeping Sally's final resting place. What we do have, however, are photographs of the ruins of the original Earlham Hall, one of Sally's alleged burial places. We cropped the photograph to make the sticker; here it is in its unaltered glory. Note the caption at the bottom saying that the photograph is of the foundation of old Earlham Hall before it was torn down in 1957.

Sticker release date: October 2023.

This month's sticker features the Hell Hag being crowned in 1948.

The college canceled all classes on the Friday of Homecoming weekend so that faculty, staff, and students could spend the day raking leaves and cleaning up the campus before the alumni returned on Saturday for Homecoming activities. The Friday of Homecoming in the 1940s and early 1950s was called “Hell Day,” not because of the forced leaf raking, but because the Sophomore class would play pranks on other people on campus. Part of Hell Day was the election of the “Hell Hag” to preside over Hell Day. At that time we had a Homecoming Queen, and the Hell Hag was the anti-Homecoming Queen. The Hell Hag presided over Friday's mischievous antics.

How to get your sticker this month:

You can get your sticker in one of two locations: the Office of Religious Life (Virginia Cottage) and the College Archive (basement Lilly). To get your sticker you will be asked to write in a journal answer this prompt: Earlham is my home because.... 

Please feel free to also share fun stories!

Sticker release date: October 2023