Spirit Seeker

Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband, by William H. Mumler (circa 1869-1871)
































Spirit Photography was a certain trend in photography that was developed as an expression of Spiritualism, a movement that peaked in membership during the 1840s-1920s. Spiritualism's major tenet was the belief that the dead could be contacted in the afterlife, usually through gifted or trained Mediums who held the ability to call forth their spirits.

William H. Mumler, the first known spirit photographer, worked in Boston and New York during the 1860s and made his money taking photographs of those who had lost relatives in the Civil War. During the early twentieth century, the most famous spirit photographer was William Hope, who claimed to have taken over 2,500 spirit photographs in two decades. Séances became a popular activity among Spiritualists of the time, as they sought to reconcile the intangible and corporeal worlds. Scientific inquiry into psychic phenomena was all the rage, and photography was employed to record manifestations of the spiritual world.

Popular fascination with Spiritualism and spirit photography soared dramatically after periods of war, when people sought desperately to contact their deceased loved ones. This occurred most noticeably after the American Civil War (1861-1865) and World War I (1914-1918) in America, Great Britain and parts of Europe.

In an age long before digital image manipulation or easily understood methods of film alteration (such as the double exposures frequently used by these photographers - almost always debunked as frauds), it is easy to imagine how powerful these images of the paranormal would have been to viewers who were willing and ready to believe in the supernatural, who accepted these photographs as tangible proof that there were indeed connections to the spiritual world.