History seems to suggest that catastrophic loss of life can spur renewed interest in spiritualist beliefs. The double-sided coin of belief and skepticism haunts these historical examples nonetheless, the psychological impact of these images among the grieving remained powerful. In the early 20th century, Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously rallied to defend British medium Ada Emma Deane, who was also accused of faking spirit photographs. Barnum gave evidence for the prosecution. The photographer was charged with fraud by claimants who argued he faked the photographs, and none other than showman P.T. Mumler’s spectacular portraits also raised the specter of hucksterism. In the 1860s, New York portrait photographer William Mumler and his wife, Hannah Mumler, a medium, offered portrait sessions in which spirits of the sitters’ loved ones appeared to manifest in the resulting photographs. Sandy Candy Eppinger’s family spirit photographs, which show her brother Eugene Candy with the spirits of their grandmother Ethel Philips and great aunt Helen Thompson, at Lily Dale, New York, in 2015. Black attire, mourning jewelry and the genre of post-mortem photography were commonplace in a culture of grieving. The American Civil War brought death at an unprecedented scale into people’s living rooms through the pages of the illustrated press. Photography also played a leading role in the 19th century’s memorial culture, since the camera could freeze time and render absent loved ones present, if only as a visual trace. Despite the proliferation of altered photographs in the 19th century, the photograph’s status as a truthful representation of reality remained – and, one might argue, continues to remain – largely intact. Whether it was through astronomical, microscopic or X-ray photography, cameras could render the unseen visible. Photography became “ the perfect medium” with which to create an iconography of spiritualism. As spiritualism developed, adherents embraced technology as tools for spirit communication and to prove the existence of spirits. The Fox sisters’ purported ability to communicate with the dead became known as “ the spiritual telegraph,” referencing the then-recent invention by Samuel B. The views of spiritualists thus represented a radical break from traditional religious and political authority. Skidmore, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Notably, spiritualism gave women an unprecedented role in religion, providing an audience and a platform to deliver messages both personal and political. Many spiritualists hoped to make utopian visions of the future a reality in the present by supporting progressive political causes such as abolitionism, women’s rights and Indigenous rights. Mediums say they convey messages from the dead to the living, including reports about the future. In addition to holding séances, spiritualists practice healings and believe in the gift of prophecy. By the 1870s, they began to put down roots, founding like-minded communities and centers of study, such as the spiritualist colony of Lily Dale, New York, established in 1879. Over time, spiritualists started appearing publicly at conventions and outdoor summer camp meetings. People who channeled communication with the dead, called mediums, operated out of their homes, where they would organize séance circles, gatherings in which a small group attempted to make contact with the spirit world. Soon, reports of similar phenomena occurring across the United States appeared in the press, and the possibility of speaking with the deceased fueled the popular imagination. News of the phenomenon traveled quickly, and the girls appeared before crowds demonstrating their purported abilities. The adolescents claimed to communicate through a system of knocks with the spirit of a man who had died in the house years earlier. Spiritualism emerged near Rochester, New York, in 1848 when two sisters, Kate and Margaret Fox, claimed to hear a mysterious rapping at their bedroom wall. In an era defined by a global pandemic, heightened political division and the planetary threat of climate change, I wonder: Is spiritualism due for a major resurgence? Spiritualism comes knocking
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