When a 19th-Century 'Spirit Photographer' Claimed to Capture

When a 19th-Century 'Spirit Photographer' Claimed to Capture

After the American Civil War, an opportunistic photographer named William Mumler took advantage of people who had recently lost a loved one — by claiming to photograph the deceased. For about $5 or $10, Mumler offered photos to countless grieving Americans with the "spirit" of the dead person included in the shot, sparking an eerie trend known as spirit photography. At one point, he even photographed Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of her assassinated husband, President Abraham Lincoln. Of course, Mumler and other spirit photographers were simply using tricks like double exposure or layering photos, and they would eventually be found out. But for much of the late 19th century, the trend blew up across America and Victorian England as mourners used these pictures to alleviate their grief. Go inside the bizarre history of spirit photography with these unsettling William H. Mumler (1832–1884) was an American spirit photographer who worked in New York and Boston. His first spirit photograph was apparently an accident—a self-portrait which, when developed, also revealed the "spirit" of his deceased cousin. Mumler then left his job as an engraver to pursue spirit photography full-time, taking advantage of the large number of people who had lost relatives in the American Civil War. His two most famous images are the photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband Abraham Lincoln and the portrait of Master Herrod, a medium, with three spirit guides. Mumler was eventually taken to court and tried for fraud and larceny. Noted showman P. T. Barnum testified against him. He was later acquitted by a judge, and his photography career continued. Today, Mumler's photographs are recognized as fakes but they circulated widely during the last quarter of the 19th century and were marketed as objects of belief and visual curiosities both within and beyond the spiritualist movement. He later discovered a process, called the "Mumler Process", by which photo-electrotype plates could be produced and printed more easily. Master Herrod was a young medium from Bridgewater, Massachusetts photographed by Mumler in about 1872. One photograph, once developed, apparently showed Herrod in a trance surrounded by the spirits of Europe, Africa and America. The photograph was advertised for sale in The Religio-Philosophical Journal on August 24, 1872. Other photographs Other photographs by Mumler included pictures showing various spirits (including relatives, fiancés, actresses and spirit guides) with living sitters. Other well-known sitters include Moses A. Dow (editor of The Waverley Magazine) whose photograph apparently showed the spirit of his assistant Mabel Warren, and Fanny Conant, a well-known medium from Boston, apparently photographed with the ghost of her brother Chas.