Spectral Exposures: The Fascinating History of Spirit Photography

First in a four-part series exploring the mysterious world of ghost photography

Have you ever wondered if it's possible to photograph a ghost? In our modern age of smartphone filters and digital manipulation, it's easy to dismiss spectral images as obvious fakes. But there was a time when the appearance of mysterious figures in photographs caused genuine wonder and sparked heated debates among scientists, spiritualists, and skeptics alike.

When the Dead Appeared on Film

The world of ghost photography is divided into two distinct categories: spirit photography (deliberately created by mediums claiming to capture the deceased) and ghost photography (apparitions inadvertently captured by ordinary people). Before we can evaluate potentially authentic ghost photographs, we must first understand the controversial beginnings of spirit photography—an industry built on both profound grief and questionable techniques.

In the wake of the devastating American Civil War, when families across the nation mourned their fallen, a Boston jeweler named William H. Mumler claimed an extraordinary discovery. In 1861, while taking a self-portrait, Mumler noticed something astonishing when developing the plate: the translucent image of his deceased cousin appeared beside him in the photograph, despite his having been alone when the picture was taken.


William H. Mumler photography a ghost

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. The Spiritualist movement was gaining immense popularity, with séances and mediumship offering grieving Victorians the promise of communication with departed loved ones. Mumler's discovery added a powerful new dimension—visible proof of the afterlife, captured through the seemingly objective lens of a camera.

What began as a curious anomaly quickly transformed into a lucrative business. Grief-stricken clients flocked to Mumler's studio, paying handsomely for the chance to see their deceased loved ones one last time. The demand was so great that Mumler abandoned his jewelry trade entirely to focus on spirit photography.


May 1869 Harper's Weekly Featuring Mumler and His Ghost Photographs

The Mechanics Behind the Spirits

How did these mysterious figures appear on film? While spiritualists claimed they were genuine manifestations of the dead, skeptics pointed to a variety of darkroom techniques that could produce similar effects.

Early photographers worked with glass-plate negatives and wet collodion processes that made multiple exposures relatively easy to achieve. A photographer could simply:

  • Use previously exposed plates that hadn't been properly cleaned, allowing faint "ghost" images to appear
  • Create double exposures by taking a photograph of a subject, then briefly exposing the same plate to another person dressed as a "spirit"
  • Position assistants dressed in white "ghostly" attire who would briefly step into frame during a long exposure
  • Superimpose cutout photographs onto the negative during development

As noted in Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography (1911), one could "dress up a person in ghostly attire, pose the 'ghost,' give a very brief and incomplete exposure, cap the lens, allow the 'ghost' to move out of the scene, and then complete the exposure." The result would be a solid-looking person with a transparent "spirit" visible nearby.

The Master Mediums of Spirit Photography

William H. Mumler (1832-1884)

Mumler's initial success launched him to celebrity status among spiritualists. Despite investigations into his methods, photographer William Black of Boston examined his work and pronounced it genuine, further legitimizing Mumler's claims.

Riding this wave of credibility, Mumler relocated to New York City, where he doubled his sitting fee to $10—an astronomical sum in the 1860s. His clientele included the elite of society, most famously Mary Todd Lincoln, who sought comfort after the assassination of her husband. The resulting photograph shows the ghostly figure of President Abraham Lincoln standing behind her, his hands resting protectively on her shoulders.


Mary Lincoln Posing in William Mumler Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Not everyone was convinced. As skepticism grew, New York authorities eventually charged Mumler with fraud. P.T. Barnum himself testified against Mumler, accusing him of exploiting vulnerable grieving people. Despite the mounting evidence, enough experts came to Mumler's defense that the charges were ultimately dropped due to insufficient evidence. The case highlighted the nation's ambivalence toward the phenomenon—a desire to believe battling with scientific skepticism.

Barnum used this fake photograph against Mumler in Mumler's fraud trial / Abraham Bogardus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

William Hope (1863-1933)

Across the Atlantic, English carpenter William Hope emerged as Britain's most prominent spirit photographer. Hope claimed to have captured more than 2,500 spirit photographs over approximately two decades, most taken after he helped form the Crewe Circle, a group of spiritualists dedicated to capturing evidence of the afterlife through photography.

Like Mumler before him, Hope faced accusations of fraud. In 1922, psychical researcher Harry Price devised a test where Hope was given glass negatives secretly marked with X-rays. When Hope produced spirit photographs on unmarked plates, Price concluded he had switched the plates and published his findings in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

A photograph by William Hope showing Harry Price with a "spirit" / Wikimedia Commons

This exposure created a schism in the spiritualist community. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the ultra-rational Sherlock Holmes but also a devoted spiritualist, vehemently defended Hope, even publishing The Case for Spirit Photography (1923) in response to Price's investigation. Doyle and others claimed the investigation was part of a conspiracy against Hope, whose business continued to thrive despite the controversy.

Evidence later emerged that Hope possessed cutout photographic heads, strongly suggesting fraud. Yet many of his photographs remained technically unexplained, an ambiguity that allowed belief to persist.

In our next installment, we'll explore the fascinating world of ghost photography—images in which apparitions appear unintentionally—and why some researchers consider these accidental captures potentially more credible than the deliberate work of spirit photographers.

Join us in the next post for "Accidental Apparitions: When Ghost Photography Happens by Chance," the second installment in our four-part series on ghost photography.

Stay connected! Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest for blog updates!

Follow us on Amazon for new book releases!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Vanishing of Barbara Newhall Follett: When a Literary Prodigy Disappeared Forever

Image
  American Authors Gone Missing Exploring the Mysterious Disappearances of Literary Voices At age twelve, Barbara Newhall Follett was hailed as a literary genius. By twenty-five, she had vanished without a trace, leaving behind one of the most haunting mysteries in American literary history. Barbara Newhall Follett. Photo courtesy of Stefan Cooke. Farksolia : Barbara Newhall Follett's Home on the Web A Child Prodigy Emerges Barbara's extraordinary story began in 1914 in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she was born to writers Helen and Wilson Follett. From an early age, Barbara displayed an almost supernatural connection to language and storytelling. At just four years old, she became fascinated by the rhythmic clacking of her father's typewriter—the "music of writing," as she called it (Morris 2019). In a scene that seems pulled from fiction itself, young Barbara crept into her father's study one night and carried the heavy typewriter back to her r...
Read more

The Sea Claimed Its Own: The Disappearance of David Kenyon Webster

Image
  American Authors Gone Missing Exploring the Mysterious Disappearances of Literary Voices On the morning of September 9, 1961, David Kenyon Webster set sail from Santa Monica pier in his 11-foot sailing dinghy, the Tusitala —a name borrowed from the Tahitians' affectionate term for Robert Louis Stevenson, meaning "teller of tales." He had rigged bait, heavy line, and hook, planning an afternoon of shark fishing off the Southern California coast. By evening, when his wife Barbara arrived at the pier to help him beach the boat, Webster had not returned. He never would. The disappearance of David Kenyon Webster represents one of the most poignant losses in American literary history—a promising writer whose passion for the sea ultimately claimed him at age 39, leaving behind a grieving family and a literary legacy that would only be fully recognized decades after his death. Artistic Interpretation of David Kenyon Webster | BookBrains Press A Writer Forged by War ...
Read more

The Vanishing of John Lake: A Sports Editor's Final Deadline

Image
  American Authors Gone Missing Exploring the Mysterious Disappearances of Literary Voices Ninth in our series "Missing American Authors" On a cold December evening in 1967, John Eric Lake walked into the labyrinth of Manhattan's subway system and disappeared forever. The 37-year-old sports editor of Newsweek magazine had just finished dinner with a friend in Midtown, declining her invitation to come upstairs and choosing instead to take the subway to his Greenwich Village apartment. He never arrived home, leaving behind a mystery that has haunted his family for decades. John Lake from a family photo album | Eric Lake released this photo into the public domain A Promising Career Cut Short John Lake's journey to Newsweek began at Syracuse University, where he met his future wife Alice Conlon while both studied journalism. After graduating in 1951, the couple married in Hawaii while John served in the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor (Ellsworth American 2011). Th...
Read more