Ep. 96: Gibson House Museum & Mediums

Jonathan shares his spine-tingling experience with a medium who connected him to the spirit of Charles Hammond Gibson Jr., the former owner of a historic Boston museum where Jonathan volunteers. The medium referred to Gibson by his pen name "Richard Sudbury," a detail that wouldn't be common knowledge to most researchers.

• Jonathan describes the Gibson House Museum, a perfectly preserved Victorian townhouse in Boston's Back Bay where he's volunteered for 13+ years
• Details about the Victorian masquerade benefit held at an exclusive private club where the medium encounter took place
• Jonathan's elaborate handmade mask inspired by the museum's Japanese wallpaper featuring gilded fruit and vines
• The medium correctly identified "Richard" (Charles Hammond Gibson Jr.'s pen name) as a spirit present at the event
• Hannah and Courtney share other experiences with mediums, including one who accurately described Hannah's apartment layout to her mother
• Introduction of a new segment featuring Hannah's horror movie reviews, beginning with "The Witch" (2015)
• Discussion of creating rating systems for both creepiness and gore levels in horror films

Don't forget to follow Hannah's bookstagram at hannah's.bookcase on Instagram to see her reviews of horror films and books!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome with Special Guest Jonathan
• 3:27 The Gibson House Museum Experience
• 7:35 Victorian Masquerade and Handmade Masks
• 12:28 Medium Encounter and Richard Sudbury
• 14:08 Personal Experiences with Mediums
• 17:36 Horror Movie Review: The Witch

Transcript

Hannah: 0:06

When do you think we can start coloring our new? Remember the big picture we got for October. For Halloween August 1st counts as Halloween. It should be out on the table after we're done with those.

Courtney: 0:16

I won't even talk about why my house isn't decorated for Halloween. It's somebody's fault, we won't put the blame on them publicly. Yeah, you were really ready to do that. I was so ready, and then the box didn't come home and I was like, oh, and the bats?

Hannah: 0:27

Because you have what? 300 bats.

Courtney: 0:28

Something like that, okay.

Hannah: 0:43

Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm Courtney. Join us as we delve into true crime, paranormal encounters and all things spooky.

Courtney: 0:49

Grab your flashlight and get ready to wander into the darkness with us. This is.

Hannah: 0:56

Wicked Wanderings. Hello Wanderers. We have a special guest today. So hello Courtney, hi Hannah. And we have no other than my brother, jonathan. Hi Jonathan's here with us today, so happy to be back.

Jonathan: 1:28

It's been ages, it has been ages.

Courtney: 1:29

We're so excited. It's been what since the beginning of the year, since Jonathan's been on us today, so happy to be back. It's been ages. It has been ages. We're so excited. It's been what Since the beginning of the year, since Jonathan's been on an episode.

Jonathan: 1:35

Right, it really has. Yeah, we were talking about the Apalachicola State Killer.

Courtney: 1:39

Right, because we I mean obviously that dropped after the first, but we recorded that like right before Christmas.

Jonathan: 1:45

Right, yeah.

Courtney: 1:45

It was like right before.

Hannah: 1:46

But didn't that like really cool documentary come out right after John talked about it, because I feel like I've just watched it, or was it an old one that I had watched?

Courtney: 1:53

I'm not sure I have a really big backlog of documentaries to watch at this point. To be honest with you guys.

Hannah: 1:58

Well, thank you for coming on today and talking about all things spooky.

Jonathan: 2:01

Thanks for having me.

Hannah: 2:02

All right, so should we talk about this medium thing? I want to know about it.

Jonathan: 2:07

Yeah, we wanted to talk about something spooky and I mentioned that I recently saw a medium well in the spring. So a little bit of context. So I work as a volunteer at a museum in Boston in the Back Bay neighborhood called the Gibson House Museum, and I've been involved with them since I was in college in Boston, since like 2012. So going on like 13 plus years now. It's an extraordinary house. It's a six-story townhouse in Back Bay built in about 1860 and occupied by three generations of the same family before it became a museum. Lock, stock and barrel all of the original furniture. Last updates were electricity in about 1912. The last decorative updates were done at about the turn of the century an absolute dream, cordia, you would die.

Hannah: 2:59

It's gorgeous.

Jonathan: 3:00

I'm dying right now it's uh, it's preserved in what some scholars said in victorian amber. So if you walk in and it's like the family has just left, so it has the china in there butler's pantry, there's gowns in the closet upstairs. It's just really wonderful.

Courtney: 3:16

When are we going? When are we going?

Jonathan: 3:19

Oh, next time you come to Boston we'll make sure we make an appointment Going to Boston.

Hannah: 3:24

Let's go but it's totally great.

Jonathan: 3:26

I love it.

Courtney: 3:28

You give her a little bit of music, and this is what happens.

Jonathan: 3:32

So in the spring we host our annual benefit and I was on the benefit committee and we host it at a private club in the Back Bay and it changes every year. I can't mention the name of the club this year because it was part of our contract Not to mention the name of the club. Really, yes, we actually got in quite a bit of trouble because we had a little bit of like post, pr stuff, like thank you for coming to the benefit at X club.

Jonathan: 3:59

And they actually reached out to us and said you have to take that down.

Courtney: 4:02

So I mean something just has to be a secret.

Jonathan: 4:06

Old money has old rules.

Courtney: 4:08

I respect most rules.

Jonathan: 4:10

But like this club, you know, we took over a series of reception rooms in their ballroom. It was really lovely. We had cocktails, heavy hors d'oeuvres, jazz music.

Hannah: 4:22

The outfits people come up with are fantastic.

Jonathan: 4:25

The theme was Victorian masquerade, so everybody wore masks. When I was in Venice I bought some masks. My boyfriend did too.

Hannah: 4:31

You made your own mask.

Jonathan: 4:32

I made my own mask and so did my boyfriend, but we also bought masks in Venice and we wore them throughout the evening. It was a lot of fun.

Hannah: 4:38

Can you explain your mask? Because what he did was, when I found out that he made it, I was like what?

Jonathan: 4:44

So when we were in Venice we did buy masks. My boyfriend bought one that was like it almost looked almost like a bishop's mitre and had like musical notes all over it. It was really cool. And then I bought one that was a gilded version of a plague doctor's mask with a really large nose.

Courtney: 5:03

I love a plague doctor.

Jonathan: 5:05

And we were like we can't eat hors d'oeuvres or talk to people in these enormous masks, so we wore some in the beginning and then we said we need alternatives. So we had these like very basic, just eye masks, and what I did was I actually did molding of all these different like ornamental curls and grapes, vines and things like that and leaves grapes, vines and things like that and leaves Because in the front hall of the museum there's this really amazing wallpaper that came from Japan and it's modeled after leather wall coverings.

Jonathan: 5:40

And it looks like grapes and pomegranates, gilded, and it goes all over the walls. It's really an extraordinary wallpaper and it was put up about 1890. So I created the mask to reflect that. So it's gilded fruit and vines and leaves all over this mask.

Hannah: 5:58

So I believe that my brother is very talented when it comes to artistic things, but when he sent us a picture and was like, oh, I made this, I'm like you did, like really.

Courtney: 6:13

You beat me to it because I was just about to say you have pictures of the mass that you're willing to share because a lot of times the wanders ask for pictures of the things that we talk about, so I try to either post them to a story or post them to our instagram are you?

Hannah: 6:22

okay with that. I totally have pictures.

Courtney: 6:23

Perfect, I will message you for them, because I think that that would go perfectly, because an etsy account will probably pay like at least 50 to 75 dollars for that. I was just telling him about his creation earlier today that people on etsy would pay for it. You just need more time.

Jonathan: 6:36

One of the things that we wanted to do during this. You know, theme of victorian masquerade was uh, actually have two, um, tarot readers. So it was my job as part of the committee to be able to, like, scope out tarot readers. And now there's. You know, two ways to do that. One is there are party companies that have tarot readers who are just there for fun. They're there to read your tarot cards and make sure you have a really good time, and they're just entertainers. They're not really there to read, they're there to entertain you. And I said, well, if we're going to do this and we're going, to do this with some fidelity.

Jonathan: 7:10

Well, if we're going to do this, and we're going to do this with some fidelity, I want to do this authentically. So I talked to a variety of different tea houses, as we call them up, near, you know, up here in new england, um, and we settled on one, regina russell's tea room, which is a really old tea room out of the south shore. Uh came highly reviewed, um worked with some lovely people there and they sent two tarot card readers. So I was one of the first people to sit down with one of the tarot card readers. Not only did he read my tarot cards, but he also was a medium and he said things that I came with a little bit of apprehension.

Jonathan: 7:44

I enjoy having my tarot card read, but I was not expecting the mediumship part and he told me all sorts of things, things that other people would not know. But the most exciting thing, I thought, and kind of the scariest thing, was that he said there's an older gentleman standing behind you who says he wants you to know he's here and his name is Richard. Do you know who that might be? Well, I don't know anyone named Richard. There's no grandfather named Richard, there's no uncle, no one who's deceased whose name is Richard and within a minute it came to me the last generation who owned the Gibson House Museum, whose benefit this was for. His name was Charles Hammond Gibson Jr and he was a gay man who lived quite openly until he died in the 1950s, and I often say he was my first boyfriend, you know he.

Hannah: 8:39

Because of all the work you did, all the work I did there.

Jonathan: 8:41

All the evenings I spent there alone. Because he was a tour guide and everything too, was a poet, he was a writer, he wrote fiction, he wrote biography you could just summon him right lectured and you know, there's, uh, several portraits of him in the house and we just had this wonderful up into his grave.

Jonathan: 8:58

We had this wonderful kinship. So I was like, oh, he's my first boyfriend. Um, his pen name was Richard Sudbury and most people would be like, oh, that's kind of a stretch, right? Oh there's Richard. And of course there's Richard. I love his pen name so much. It's my Wi-Fi password, it's my password to get my 401k account in different ways.

Courtney: 9:21

I was going to say it's not just hashtag. Richard Sudbury. To clarify for anybody who knows him you will not get in with those pieces of information.

Hannah: 9:28

No, there's a lot more that goes with it.

Jonathan: 9:29

Social security number is but then it came to me I was like oh, of course, why If he came through? And the medium was like oh, charles, Hamming Gibson's here.

Courtney: 9:39

I'd be like, yeah, you researched what museum you were doing the benefit for Because you don't relate to him as that, you relate to him as Richard under his pen name, because that was his pen name, right.

Jonathan: 9:49

And I was like, oh, he's letting me know he's here, and it freaked me out. It was so powerful, I was speechless and I was like, yes, I know exactly who that is. So it was a wonderful experience. Well, of course, I mean he was known for mixing gin in his third floor bathroom during Prohibition. He would have cocktails, but while he in the maybe the 20s, through the 50s, he had already decided that his family home in Back Bay, boston, would be a museum, so he would rope off rooms of the house when he would have cocktail parties and so he would make everyone sit on the grand staircase because he was like you can't sit on any of the furniture, so, of course, why wouldn't he be at a party that was in benefit?

Courtney: 10:34

of the house that he left behind that he loved so much, right so?

Jonathan: 10:37

of course, like we made a great party and a great private club in back bay, why wouldn't he be there?

Courtney: 10:42

right, and why wouldn't?

Jonathan: 10:43

he speak up and be like hey, we've communed multiple times, but now we have somebody to say, hey, it's richard and he's here and I was like oh, charlie's here that is so cool it freaked me out and it was wonderful it was a good freak yeah, I can't wait.

Jonathan: 10:57

Um, I'm gonna go see him again this fall. That particular medium, because he knew so many things he was. He read jewelry. He was supposed to spend like 10 minutes with me reading my tarot cards. We spent like a half hour. He read jewelry. He read um a jewelry you were wearing yeah, because some people have the gift of reading jewelry. They can see like, oh, this is, this is from a certain person. This means something in particular.

Hannah: 11:25

I guess it's like there are certain people that are really good with like haunted objects. Yeah that's true.

Courtney: 11:31

They know about certain things, about objects, where they came from, what possibly could be in things, so that makes sense that someone else could do that, because it holds energy and that's interesting and that's interesting, that makes me very curious about and I know I'm not a skeptic, but I know a lot of people who maybe are listening or maybe who just think about this kind of thing in general are skeptics. I would be interested to bring a piece of jewelry that I very much knew the whole history to to somebody to then just sit there and not give any information and see how accurate it was. Like I have my grandmother's engagement ring that she wore her entire life and it was purchased and made just for her.

Hannah: 12:07

So it'd be interesting to see. Well, maybe we should bring that on our trip next weekend and see if we can find someone.

Courtney: 12:13

The idea of bringing that piece of jewelry anywhere makes me so nervous. I'm one of those people who like gets something fancy and then I get so nervous about it that I lock it away someplace you don't ever want to wear it absolutely, and that's so sad, because it's like this piece of jewelry was given to you to wear, to embrace yeah but I'm so nervous something bad will happen to it. Maybe if I get like a really sturdy chain and I can wear it, I think around my neck.

Hannah: 12:36

Really interesting if we could find someone next weekend on our trip to find someone that might be able to totally spook me out.

Courtney: 12:44

I know I've told my mom went to a medium and I didn't even know she believed in that kind of stuff and the thing the medium was like. I think my mom was disappointed. The medium was very focused on me instead of her and the things that this medium said my mom didn't even know about my apartment. They were describing the full layout of my apartment to my mom and this is the apartment she had before this one, correct?

Courtney: 13:06

yeah, yeah, my mom had been in my apartment exactly one time and this medium was telling her, like your daughter is trying to tell you something, you're not listening to her. She keeps telling you that she can't sleep. It's not about sleep, you're not listening to her. Her bed needs to move from the location that it's in her bed. She cannot sleep there. My mom's like what are you talking about? What do you mean the location her bed is in? And she's like why is her bed across the front door of her apartment? And I lived in a very old building and so the front door was non-functional, totally illegal in the state of massachusetts.

Courtney: 13:34

But I'll go past that so my bed I had put I mean I was in my early 20s, I had put up like some kind of wall hanging and I just put my bed there because there was a whole fireplace and steam heating unit and it was a studio so there was really no place to put your furniture if you didn't put it directly in front of the store. And this woman was adamant. She was like if she does not move that bed, she will not sleep, it will not be good. She needs to move the bed. And my mom calls me she's like this medium is cracked. She seems to think that you would put your bed in front of a door. And I'm like, holy shit, my bed is in front of a door. And I'm like, holy shit, my bed is in front of my door. Wow, and who would ever like that's such a random thing.

Jonathan: 14:07

That's not something you can like infer. No, yeah.

Courtney: 14:09

And at that point in time, my mom and I didn't talk all the time, we didn't have a good relationship, and so I had experienced things within my home that I hadn't shared with her, and the medium explained almost all of them down to a T and my mom was like well, I don't know about any of that. And so when my mom called me, she was like, oh my god, that's exactly what the medium said happened to you and I didn't know any of it.

Courtney: 14:35

Wow, so I've been dying to see a medium, but I haven't done it.

Hannah: 14:36

Oh, I'm worried the medium's trip. We maybe we should. I mean, what better place to where we're going right?

Jonathan: 14:40

definitely look into who you're going to before. Yes, 100.

Courtney: 14:44

Yes, 100%. It's just like anything. There's going to be people who say they can do something and I feel like certain areas are like hotspots for that kind of thing. Where we're going, definitely one of those hotspots.

Jonathan: 14:54

And again you have some people who are just there for entertainment and like it's not a problem, but you have people there who actually have a gift.

Hannah: 15:01

So where we're going in america, we went to a shop together, right, and they were taking readings in the back room. But just looking at the shop I'm like, oh, this looks like made in china threw up in here and it's not very legit when we went.

Jonathan: 15:17

It was very commercial, very um, and I was very disappointed, but I think we have a few other options up there.

Hannah: 15:25

Well, if you know of one, please let us know. Drag us along.

Jonathan: 15:29

Like I said, you guys won't be in that area, but South Shore does have some great stops.

Courtney: 15:38

We could be in that area though Make an appointment.

Jonathan: 15:41

I only live Virginia.

Courtney: 15:42

Russell's.

Jonathan: 15:42

Tea Room in Quincy Mass. He was fantastic.

Courtney: 15:46

I think it would be interesting, too, to go to somebody who you already had an experience with, just because. I feel like oftentimes there's so many people who read tarot or so many people who are mediums and do mediumship that you're talking about a different experience, because the person who did it was very different.

Hannah: 16:01

Yeah.

Courtney: 16:02

I know one of the girls that I'm friends with. She also loves to have tarot read, so she has like a spot I think it's in Northampton that she loves to go to and she's like that's where I'll go. Like I don't know why she's like I just I relate to this person, I connect with this person. That's where I'll friends who tell me they can read tarot, but like, probably can't. No, I haven't had my tarot read either, but maybe I'm afraid I'm like what's it gonna say?

Hannah: 16:30

I know right, is it gonna be something bad? Which it could be?

Courtney: 16:33

I mean honestly I feel like that was good read it. And then a lot of times people internalize, based off of what they know, onto the cards. Yeah, that's the way that I kind of interpretation.

Hannah: 16:43

I feel like also there's definitely interpretation that you have to do.

Jonathan: 16:48

Um yeah, with tarot cards.

Hannah: 16:50

With the Bible too, like just kind of going back to our childhood, like there's interpretation with it, with everything.

Courtney: 16:56

With everything, with everything in life, it comes down to experiences.

Hannah: 16:58

You can't take things down to like oh, this is the death card, you're gonna die. Like that's not.

Jonathan: 17:03

Yeah, no, it doesn't work that way.

Courtney: 17:04

Yeah, it's the death of something.

Courtney: 17:18

That's kind of the deck upside down, and then it doesn't necessarily mean the opposite of literally whatever it is. It could mean growth in a different direction instead of death or something like that. So today, to end our episode, we're going to try something a little bit different. We've been doing the cards for a long time and, while we feel like that's still very important, we kind of wanted to leave off on more of a positive and happy note. So Hannah has been doing this challenge throughout the summer while she's taking her time off, and she is reviewing and watching every horror movie in this pack that she bought. So we're going to do a random Hannah reviewed of a horror movie at the end of each of our episodes. If you guys hate it, write in, let us know. If you love it, write in, let us know. If you have feedback about Hannah's review or the movie in general, or one that you want her to review, let us know.

Hannah: 18:08

So I have been going a little outside the pack. I will say, uh-oh, she already broke it, but the horror movie pack that you can scratch off has been so much fun. I actually did it with Rob yesterday and I said Rob, pick a card, whatever calls to you, and we ended up watching the absolute classic of the Sounds of the Lambs, which was phenomenal. But the movie I want to talk about today is called the Witch. Okay, and it's by Robert Eggers. As a director, he's the same guy that just did Nosferatu that just came out last year. That, of course, courtney came with me. So the Witch actually has a huge basis in Salem and then the family gets shunned and they have to go find their own way in the land of Massachusetts.

Hannah: 18:49

The main actress is Anya Taylor-Joy, which I think a lot of people saw in Queen's Gambit. She's a phenomenal actress, but she was actually young during this movie. So it's about her kind of finding her way and the way the Puritans were with religion and she told everyone she was a witch, but she wasn't. But then it's spooky, it's crazy. They're afraid of the woods because something lives there. It's very dark and dreary and there's no hope and it's just how you probably would picture Puritan life back in the day, where there just was no happiness in anything you did. All it was was shame and we're all going to die. We're all sinners and regret, and so it's phenomenal. I actually made my mom watch it. She didn't like it as much as nosferatu, which was fine, but I absolutely loved this movie. I thought the acting was phenomenal. The storyline was phenomenal. I highly recommend. I actually give it five out of five stars that's awesome.

Courtney: 19:51

what year did that one come out? If you don't mind me asking Good question.

Hannah: 19:54

I have that right here. It came out in 2015.

Courtney: 19:57

Okay, so it's not a terribly old film. I know some people will ask that about films where they really can't get into, like the old school horror, and I know Hannah and I have had conversations. Sometimes I'm here while she's watching her movie.

Hannah: 20:08

I'm working diligently, or Courtney.

Courtney: 20:11

But sometimes I know for myself I have a harder time getting into the older horror movies just because I'm like eye roll, yeah, okay.

Hannah: 20:18

I think Robert Eggers is a little bit like Tim Burton, where he kind of picks these actors and actresses that they really like. So the father that's in this film is Ralph Innocent. He also was in Nosferatu, so I think he's he likes certain actors and actresses, kind of like Tim Burton, where he loves Johnny Depp and now he's liking Jenna Ortega and kind of having these people act and act and act for him. But phenomenal. I absolutely loved it.

Courtney: 20:47

You said five out of five was your final rating five out of five and on a creepy scale. I want to try to do a creepy scale as we're getting closer to halloween, five being the very most creepy you've ever seen, one being like. I've seen a lot better creepy. What does it score on the creepiness scale?

Hannah: 21:03

so I find that's a very hard question, only because like are we looking for? Like a gory, that's why I'm asking it.

Courtney: 21:09

Why would I ask you a simple question? Why would I ask you a simple question? Why would I ask you a simple question?

Hannah: 21:14

If religious trauma and the occult scares you, I would definitely give it a three out of five. Okay, on the gore scale, probably only one out of five.

Courtney: 21:26

I think that I'm glad you brought that up, because that's an important element too. There are some people who really love scary and spooky, yes, but they absolutely can't do the gore. So I think we should probably do a gore rating too moving forward, I agree. So yeah, there's not a lot of gore and any kind of trigger warnings, we'll let you guys know too.

Hannah: 21:40

As always, we try to be really mindful about everybody's mental health and making sure that you guys all know if there's going to be something that could be potentially triggering 100% and the fact going to be very particular about my readings that I'm giving these because I do want to tell you guys, like what it is about the film I liked, what I didn't like about it, what trigger warnings are important, because I do know how I find out about these films, like people tell me trigger stuff beforehand, um, but this is definitely a religious trauma type and, um, actually in terms of like a abuse, like I wouldn't say there's anything like that, just a lot of religious trauma and the occult.

Courtney: 22:18

So if you don't like that, don't watch it and you do post all of these reviews on your bookstagram as well, correct I've? Been trying to be so good about that. Yes, it's hannah's dot bookcase on instagram if you want to see the books she's reading or if you want to see kind of a sneak peek about the different movies that she's watching.

Hannah: 22:32

I know I've been going away from books lately and doing horror films, but it's just kind of been my niche lately that I've been enjoying. You're mixing it up, nothing wrong with that.

Courtney: 22:39

Mixing it up. Thank you, thanks, guys, we'll see you guys, next time Bye, wanderers.

Jonathan: 22:45

Bye.

Hannah: 22:46

Bye. Thanks for listening today. W Hosted by me Hannah and co-hosted by me Courtney, and it's produced by Rob Fitzpatrick. Music by Sasha N. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to leave a rating and review and be sure to follow on all socials. You can find the links down in the show notes. If you're looking for some really cozy t-shirts or hoodies, head over to the merch store. Thank you for being a part of the Wicked Wanderings community. We appreciate every one of you.