Intriguing fresh evidence connected to New England’s infamous ‘Vampire Panic’ in the 18th century will be revealed in a Halloween talk at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster on Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 1:00pm.

Medievalist and storyteller, Susan Jarek-Glidden’s new talk will include a case from Connecticut River Valley, said to have taken place in 1725 and only discovered last year. She will also be discussing the recent finding of an unusually patterned quilt reputed to have belonged to one of the area’s best known ‘vampires’.

Around 20 cases of ‘vampirism’ are known to have been documented in a wave of panic that gripped the area in the 17 and 1800s. Spreading from Rhode Island, it became a region-wide phenomenon throughout Connecticut, southern and western Massachusetts, Vermont, and other areas.

Susan will be telling the true tales that fueled the folklore in an atmospheric and fascinating session exploring a period of history that followed the better known Salem Witch Trials.

Free with Museum Admission
For more information please call: 508-896-3867, ext. 133