Top 10 Harvard Alumni to Summon in a Seance

Updated October 28, 2024, at 6:17 p.m.

We’re in peak spooky season, which means the spirits are floating around, ready to cause mischief. And Harvard certainly has a lot of spirits to its name. Almost 400 years of alumni means there are plenty of people to speak to from beyond the grave… So which ones should you go for? If you’re going to do a seance this spooky season — a ritual with candles to try to attract a ghost to speak with you — then you need to know who you’re summoning. Have no fear: Flyby has compiled a top-10 list of ghosts to attract.

1. Robert Frost

Starting off strong with the author of a very autumnal poem. Ask him if it really made all the difference.

2. Cotton Mather

Mather was an ardent defender of the Salem Witch Trials; say you’re a witch and watch the lights flicker!

3. Henry David Thoreau

You simply must clown him for how his mom did his laundry when he was at Walden.

4. Any Roosevelt

If you’ve talked to one, you’ve talked to them all. And they basically all went here, so.

5. Hellen Keller

Girlboss. Radcliffe legend. You can tell her how Harvard did Radcliffe dirty and rage together about it.

6. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be sure to tell him how creepy you think the statue of him in Emerson Hall is.

7. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Ask him about Cillian Murphy! We’re sure he’d be super happy to discuss.

8. John Adams

No, not that one. No, not that one either. Yes, that one.

9. Ted Kaczynski

Definitely a scary guy. He’d probably be into the candle aspect of a seance since it’s luddite-core.

10. Barack Obama

He’s very much not dead, but everyone really seems to want him to be on campus. Maybe this is the way to do it.

Be sure to ~summon~ us first if you try these out — we want to see what happens! Happy haunting!