(locks clicking) (keys jangling) - [Interviewee] University archives tracks our history dating back to the founding of the university in 1850.

Looking back, you can constantly see the student newspapers will publish stories about ghosts on campus.

- It says here, "You feel something follow you up the stairs, "and you can see something from the corner of your eye "reflected in the glass, "but if you turn around and face it, "you won't see anything."

- So Illinois Wesleyan University is a small liberal arts college, and we have just celebrated our 175th anniversary.

For our students, I think understanding the history of the university, and some of that is some of the storytelling, helps them gain a sense of self and a sense of belonging to the campus, and they can see themselves in the past as well.

(somber instrumental music) - The Lady in Red, so Mary Louise Hodge DeMange was her full name.

The story goes she had married A.E.

DeMange, and they built this kind of revitalist classicist mansion that's right on the outer edge of campus today.

And the two moved in to the mansion, and she ends up dying a little over a year later.

Broken by her death, her husband left the house and eventually sells it in 1911 to Illinois Wesleyan with all of the furniture.

He didn't take a thing according to the story.

And I think that has a lot to do with kind of that haunting element.

(somber instrumental music) - There are several different written down accounts that are published in the student newspapers, and they vary a little bit, but they have some common threads.

But one idea is that Mrs.

DeMange can be seen in a ball gown, because she's getting ready to attend a fancy ball.

She's likely red, so they call her the Lady in Red.

- She isn't trying to harm anyone from the stories we read, but she is lingering there.

She's one of the most popular on campus today.

A lot of the students have mentioned experiencing something in Kemp Hall.

- The radio station for Illinois Wesleyan, WESN, is housed in the basement in Kemp Hall.

My freshman year I'm there, and I'm doing my homework.

My friend is in the corner doing their homework.

And you can hear when the music is playing.

You can hear it coming through the speakers, and all of a sudden you just get straight static.

Like, it's like a hard cut.

And I thought that I had hit one of the knobs on the board, but slowly, like, the static starts backing away and all of a sudden the music's playing.

(serene operatic music) The Wednesday right after, I mentioned that this happened and one of them turns to me and goes, "Oh, yeah, "that was probably one of the ghosts."

She was like, "Yeah, there's a binder.

"If you go through it, "there should be a laminated page there."

Apparently, there's a certain methodology or whatever to sort of satisfy her, I guess, because apparently people will claim that that's her.

That's her interrupting the radio.

I mean, I guess, like, yeah, I'd be kind of upset if there were these random people blasting tunes in my basement, like, you know.

- I think what's interesting when we talk about ghost stories and folklore in general is just like this, it's been a tradition in human history throughout like going back to ancient times that there's myths and legends shared.

And this is just modern day versions of those legends, and it's an interesting example of oral tradition at work and oral storytelling at work, so yeah.

(gentle guitar music) - I think that it's fun, you know, in a way you know, to feel that you're part of history.

Sometimes you're like, "Okay, was that actually like a ghost "or was that a prank that just, like, "has now become an urban legend?"

Do you know what I mean?

And I think that that's like part of the fun in it because like I could honestly believe that there are ghosts here.

I could also honestly believe that every single story is a prank or an urban legend because you have that sort of student body, you know what I mean?

So I think that's cool.

I think it's fun.

(gentle instrumental music) - Everybody loves a good story.

And here at Wesleyan, I find our students getting more and more creative with how they tell stories, right?

So I think, you know, the ghosts definitely lend themselves well, not only to our institutional history, but how students see the world around them and think about the campus around them and their connection to it.

It's pretty cool to be able to tell the history of the dorm that you're living in.

Having that idea of something else lingering, if the walls could tell stories, well, what stories would they tell?

And the ghosts help the students tell those stories.

- The interesting thing about the university is we always have new students every four years and a new group comes in.

So with that overlap, the upperclassmen have an opportunity to tell the lowerclassmen these stories and it kind of lives on.

- People like it because of the fact that it's a very quick way to bond, not just with other people, but bond with the campus.

(gentle guitar music fades) (crickets chirping)