Spirit Photos from the Nineteen-teen's

See my previous posts about spirit photography for more info...

Later Era Spirit Photo

I've done posts about spirit photos in the past, particularly about their history and their Victorian era progenitor William Mumler. Spirit photos weren't just a thing of the Victorian era, however. Their popularity lasted into the 20th Century, and the above photo is an example from the turn-of-the-century or perhaps from the nineteen-teens. I love how you really have to look for the "spirit" in this photo. It's lack of obviousness gives it a very ethereal, ghostly quality.

Bringing Out the Dead

Pictured is an assortment of spirit photography related books to accompany the previous post. Spirit photography was part of a greater movement known as "spiritualism." The spiritualists believed in "God," but they also believed that spirits in the afterlife can communicate with the living through mediums, seances, and a variety of other methods. Spiritualism thrived from the 1840's to the 1920's. One method of communication was said to be spirit slate writing. Spirit slate writing occurs when a medium gathers people in a seance, and they provide spirits with chalk and a piece of slate. It was alleged that the spirit could directly communicate by writing upon the board. Another method is spirit rapping. This occurs when a medium gathers people in a seance, and spirits supposedly communicate with the gatherers by knocking on the table. They ask the spirit questions, and one knock might me "no" and two might mean "yes" for example. The Fox Sisters of New York were a famous group of mediums who would hold seances, and "spirit rapping" would supposedly occur. It was later revealed that the Fox Sisters were cracking their knuckles to make the rapping sound. The other book pictured is by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was a major proponent and defender of spirit photography, which continued to be popular despite Mumler's trial and all the hoop-la. He truly wanted to believe that spirit photography was legitimate, and he wrote the book pictured in order to defend it.

Spirit Photography, A Great Gaff

Spirit photography became popular in the 1860's when photographer William Mumler happened upon double exposure, and marketed double-exposed photos as "spirit photos." The whole thing was a gaff, but the idea was that the photographs showed the living person and in the background would be an image of a dead loved one's "spirit." To obtain images of "spirits" that looked like the person's loved one, Mumler would have the subject bring in a photograph of their deceased loved one or otherwise ascertain what that person looked like. Then, he would search through a bunch of photos of random people and find the best match to use in his double exposure process. Mumler even took a famous photo of Mary Todd Lincoln in which honest Abe's "spirit" is in the background. Mumler was discovered to be a fraud when someone recognized living people being portrayed as the "spirits." A huge trial ensued in which even P.T. Barnum, great gaff master himself, testified against Mumler. Despite all the hoop-la, Mumler was still found not guilty. The CDV photograph shown above is an original Mumler "spirit" photo. People who couldn't appear personally in Mumler's studio would send photographs, along with lots of cash, to him. Mumler would then take their photographs and place them on the table shown in the photo. He would then add in the spirits from his stock of photographs of random people, easily finding the best match by comparing photos of the deceased loved ones with his stock of photos. What a racket! And a profitable one at that.

Strange Turn of the Century "Ghost" Photo

This turn of the century cabinet photo intrigued me from the get-go, although its nature is unclear. The photo was purchased by me on eBay for a nominal price. While somber poses were common in this era, black attire such as this was usually reserved for mourning a death. The chilliness of the photo goes beyond the intense stares of the subjects-- the icy winter scene evokes the same harshness.

But these qualities are not the most interesting aspect of the photo. The little girl in the window...what is her purpose? A rational person would say: "She was in the house, and she got in the shot." But, I must admit, it's more fun to be irrational. It's more fun to speculate that she's the dead person that they are mourning with their black attire and that her spirit has manifested itself, appearing in the photo. Okay, not likely, but I have wondered if perhaps this is an example of what was known as "spirit photography." During this time period, people would sometimes have photographers add in images of their deceased relatives into photos of themselves. Is this a spirit photo? It's hard to say.