It’s the most wonderful time of the year … Welcome to October! This month, we’ll explore the odd events, and bizarre findings that make our world wonderfully spooky and weird.
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| The Fox Sisters |
It
all began in 1848 in Hydesville, New York when the Fox sisters claimed to be
able to communicate with the spirits through rappings. Only years later did one
of the sisters confess to a large audience that it had all be a hoax; the girls
had the sounds by manipulating their joints.
Spiritualism
and spirit photography became popular after the Civil War, thanks, in part, to
First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary had lost two sons, Willie at age eleven, and
Eddy at the age of four. When a group of mediums known as the Lauries
approached her, Mary began attending seances in Georgetown. She got so much
from them that she held more than half a dozen seances in the Red Room of the
White House.
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| Mary with Abe’s “Ghost” |
These
“visits” from her dead sons offered her solace, and a means to go on. When her
husband, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Mary began “talking” with
him, too. Other bereft families throughout the country were also seeking to
communicate with their lost loved ones. In fact, by 1897, more than eight
million Americans believed in spiritualism. And spirit photography helped make
the metaphysical seem real.
One
of the better-known U.S. spirit photographers was William Mumler of Boston. He
is the person who took the photo of Mary Lincoln with the “ghost” of Abraham
leaning over her. Mumler left Boston after being accused of faking his photos
by double exposing the photographic plates. He moved to New York where he was
put on trial for the same charge in 1868. Mumler was acquitted due to lack of
evidence, but this ended his spirited career.
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| A Spirited Brother |
In
typical spirit photos, faces and heads appeared hovering over the
shoulder or head of the living subject. These faces usually had a connection to
the living – a husband, wife, parent, sibling or child who had passed on. Most
were said to be created by double exposure, or having an accomplice step from
behind the curtain as a subject sat for a portrait, thereby imposing the image
of another person on the plate.
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| Maggie Fox |
In
1888, Maggie Fox appeared at the New York Academy of Music and confessed before
a large audience that she and her sisters had created the mystical rappings by manipulating
their toe joints and knuckles. She proceeded to remove her shoes and show the
audience how she could “rap her toes.” One year later, she recanted, but the damage had been
done. By the close of the century, spiritualism was losing its bewildering hold.
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| Doyle and a Ghost |
World
War One brought a resurgence of spiritualism and ghost photos. Again, the
nation attempted to reach beyond the veil to communicate with lost husbands,
fathers, and brothers who had perished during the Great War. In 1916, Arthur
Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, attested to the legitimacy of ghosts in his book, The Case of Spirit Photography.
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| Houdini & Fake Lincoln Ghost |
But
magician Harry Houdini wound up on the other side of the pall. Houdini
had attended seances to contact his dead mother, but soon realized that the mediums
were fakes. He then wrote a book, A Magician Among the Spirits,
which detailed how mediums created their illusions.
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| The Brown Lady |
The
most famous ghost photograph was taken in 1936 at Raynham Hall in Norfolk
England. In it, the Brown Lady can be seen descending the manor staircase.
Supposedly, this is the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole (1686-1726) whose husband
locked her in her room after discovering an alleged affair with Lord Warton.
She died there of smallpox in 1726.
Her
ghost was first seen during the Holiday celebrations in 1835. The ghost was
sighted again in 1926, and photographed in 1936. Charges of fraud were quickly
issued, and ranged from double exposure to rubbing grease on the camera lens in
the shape of a figure. No resolution was ever reached.
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| Orbs – What are they? |
Today,
spirit photographers say it is hard to be taken seriously with the hoaxes of
the past. When they photograph orbs, many claim it’s backscatter caused by
the reflection of particles or waves sent back in the direction they came from.
But others claim these orbs indicate the presence of spirits, and life from the beyond.
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| The Lady in White |
Regardless
of whether you believe in the presence of spirits, and the ability to visually
capture them, there are numerous photographs that have been taken over the
decades that defy explanation; the Brown Lady being one of them. Also questionable is this photo of the Lady in White in Bachelors Grove Cemetery in Chicago.
Can
a spirit’s presence be visually captured?
It
remains in the eye of the beholder.
~
Joy
