Postcards from a hundred Halloweens ago
Between about 1905 and 1915, sending picture postcards was a craze, and Halloween cards were some of the loveliest: grinning jack-o'-lanterns, black cats, children bobbing for apples, and witches who look more friendly than frightening. Artists such as Ellen Clapsaddle and Frances Brundage drew thousands of them.
Every card in this house is out of copyright. Most are public domain, held by museums and libraries such as the Missouri History Museum, the New York Public Library and Historic New England. A few are photographs by ewan traveler, shared under a Creative Commons licence that asks only for credit. All of them come from Wikimedia Commons.
The music
The organ music is the famous opening of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565), from the early 1700s, the piece most people think of as spooky castle organ music. It plays softly from a public-domain edition by the Mutopia Project, on an organ sound made in your browser.