Curious Case of Chloe Russell’s “The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream"

This talk will explore an intriguing text held in the Boston Athenaeum titled The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book. This text purports to be written by Chloe Russell “A Woman of Color of the state of Massachusetts, also commonly termed the Old Witch, or Black Interpreter.” Dated around the turn of the 19th century, it has been a puzzle for scholars. Russell is documented as owning a home in Boston’s West End and was alternatively listed as a washerwoman and cook, and is not now known to have written anything else in her lifetime. An interesting compilation of astrology and superstitions around choosing a mate that might have been reprinted from elsewhere, this talk will dig into some of the unique aspects of this surprising text that facilitate speculation about its possible occasion for publication. Nicole N. Aljoe, Ph.D., Director, Africana Studies Program, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies, Northeastern University Co-Director of The Early Caribbean Digital Archive and Director the Early Black Boston Digital Almanac, both associated with Northeastern’s NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks and the Snell Library’s Digital Scholarship Group.