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Guide to the Chicagoland Psychic Archives
ARC Mss 9
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Table of contents
Title: Chicagoland Psychic Archives
Date (inclusive): 1964-1985
Collection number: ARC Mss 9
Creator: Melton, J. Gordon.
Extent: 2.5 linear feet (2 boxes)
Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Abstract: A project started in 1975 at Institute for the Study of American Religions to gather materials relating to the large Chicago
area community engaged in the study and practice of paranormal phenomena. The files contain newsletters, flyers and posters,
newspaper articles, business cards, correspondence, promotional materials, and other relevant items.
Physical location: Annex 2
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
None.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Chicagoland Psychic Archives. ARC Mss 9. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Gift of Gordon Melton, n.d.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Chicagoland Psychic Archives was a project started in the fall of 1975 at Dr. J. Gordon Melton's Institute for the Study
of American Religions. The city of Chicago, Illinois was home to a large community engaged in the study and practice of paranormal
phenomena, including psychics, astrologers, readers, mediums, graphologists, ghosthunters, and devotees of the occult, nonconventional
healing, UFOs, and parapsychology. Assisted by psychic card reader David Techter, astrologer Elinor Jaksto, and others, Dr.
Melton sought to compile whatever material was available to document this distinct subculture.
Although the "Chicagoland" psychic community reached as far as Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Gary, Indiana, the archive is limited
primarily to individuals and organizations operating within Cook County, Illinois, and directly adjacent counties. The files
contain newsletters, flyers and posters, newspaper articles, business cards, correspondence, promotional materials, and other
relevant items.