William Mumler and Spirit Photography in the 19th century

Apple  | Audible |  Spotify  |  RSS  |  YouTube (captioned)
​

Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, c. 1872.

The 19th-century was on the cutting edge of some new technology and a new religious movement, and they intersected in some interesting – and surprising – ways. Find out how spirit photography became A Thing and how William Mumler “captured” the ghost of Abraham Lincoln in this week’s episode of Footnoting History. 

​Host: Kristin

Help keep Footnoting History going, click here to find out how!

Further Reading
James Coates, Ph.D., F.A.S., Photographing the Invisible: Practical Studies in Spirit Photography, Spirit Portraiture, and other Rare but Allied Phenomena. L. N. Fowler & Co., (1911).
 
Louis Kaplan, The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer. University of Minnesota Press, (2008).
 
Peter Manseau, The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln’s Ghost. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, (2017).
 
Jolly Martyn, “Faces of the Living Dead [Spirit Photography was Popular after World War I],” Photofile 66 (2002): 35-39.
 
William Mumler, The Personal Experiences of William H. Mumler of Spirit-Photography, written by himself. Colby and Rich, (1875).

Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)