On February 25, 2015, there was an article published in the Chicago Tribune regarding two ex-dormmates from Lake Forest College who met after 70 years living apart. This article shows how the concept of sisterhood transcends over the years, considering they belonged to the Gamma Phi Beta sorority back in the day.
When it comes to the history of what happened before that, the details might surprise you. While 70 years of sisterhood sounds astounding, what happened 120 years ago might blow your mind. Back in the late 1800s, Lake Forest College used to be a magical community—not in the figurative sense, but in the literal one. If one were to go to the archive section of the library, one could find the history behind the Blackstone and Harlan gates.
It turns out that Lake Forest used to offer subjects such as Introduction to Black Magic 110, Development of Chemical Potions 225, Theories of International Invisibility 340, and senior seminar on Levitation in Modern Society 421, just to name a few.
The variety of these courses allowed students to engage in study abroad opportunities in Transylvania and JuJu, Ghana to take advantage of professional internships in blood reservoirs for human consumption and lectures from highly regarded voodoo masters.
Back in the day, the courses, the professors, and the overall opportunities offered on magic studies—which include the extra- curricular National Society of Witchery—ensured a bright future for magical professions. In fact, some alumni can still recall the importance of these subjects as they look back in the yearbooks from previous years.
“My research program in the summer of 1895 included detailed studies on Lycanthropes, taking advantage of the forest when full moon was reflected on Lake Michigan,” Rose Harwich is quoted in the 1896 yearbook.
While academic and extracurricular factors were important in the life of an average magic student at Lake Forest, social life was the element of college life most highlighted in past yearbooks. Those old yearbook photographs show how the students developed an underground lifestyle where Wolfsbane Potion was the chief ingredient for a wild night of enchantment.
During those years, Lake Forest enjoyed providing lectures and discussions in Hotchkiss Hall (before the construction of Young Hall). While doing research for this article, however, there could be seen a gap between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, where photographs and yearbook pages were ripped off from the originals.
Although there is little information about what happened, old Stentor Newspaper editions point to a massive fire that destroyed the College. Since then, the College has never been the same. As a result, the magic and witchery courses were never taught again.
Some of the archives are still available to the public, if one dares to go and see the yearbook pages. To check it out for yourself, go to the Special Collections in the basement of the library. The Special Collections room is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Did you fall for this? Happy April’s Fools!
Disclaimer: All stories in The Chive are works of fiction. People involved in the stories may not have knowledge of their involvement. This section is meant to serve as a humorous break from the daily grind.
