He claimed that he was completely surprised when shadow images showed up on his plates, hovering over the overt subjects of his portraits. Kaplan points out that Mumler could not have flourished "without the intellectual and spiritual support and patronage of the religious movement known as Spiritualism." Mumler had worked as an engraver, and took photographs as a hobby. To read the original documents is to come to a close understanding of the largely American, largely 19th- century craze for communicating with the dead. Barnum's thoughts on the issue, the argument of the counsel attempting to prosecute Mumler for fraud, and best of all the verbatim press reports about Mumler's career and trial. He reprints Mumler's own account of his experiences with spirit photography, P. In _The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer_ (University of Minnesota Press), Louis Kaplan, an associate professor of history and theory of photography, has given the history of Mumler's work, and for the most part the history speaks for itself. Mumler, who was active in the 1860s, photographed spirits for the benefit of the bereaved, and his photos fit into the Spiritualist thinking of the time. William Mumler gave a good dose of astonishment for both sides.
The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer is the definitive resource for this unique and fascinating moment in American history and provides insights into today’s ghosts in the machine.Įveryone likes a good ghost story, and everyone has a curiosity about ghosts some are ready to be astonished at accounts of visits from the spirit world, others to be astonished at the credulity of those who believe such accounts. Mumler’s case was an early example of investigative journalism intersecting with a criminal trial that, at its essence, set science against religion. Kaplan also contributes two extended essays, which offer a historical perspective of the Mumler phenomena and delve into the sociocultural and theoretical issues surrounding this vivid ghost story. Barnum’s famous indictment of Mumler in Humbugs of the World. In The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer, Louis Kaplan brings together, for the first time, Mumler’s haunting images, his revealing memoir, and rich primary sources, including newspaper articles and P. Mumler’s insistence that his work brought back the dead led to a sensational trial in 1869 that was the talk of the nation. Skeptics, however, called it a fraudulent trick on the gullible, taking advantage of the grieving at a time of suffering and loss. The practice came to be known as spirit photography, and some believed Mumler was channeling the dead. Faint images of the dearly departed lurked in the background with the living, like his well-known photo of the recently assassinated Abraham Lincoln comforting Mary Todd.
In the 1860s, William Mumler photographed ghosts-or so he claimed.
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