The 19th-Century Spirit Photography Grift
(cheerful music) – Mumler magic. Mumler magic. ♪ On a quiet Sunday morning in 1861 ♪ (dramatic music) On a quiet Boston morning in 1861, William Mumler was teaching
himself about photography. He carefully positioned the camera, and exposed the glass plate to light. Then he walked into the frame and stood for his own portrait. After a few seconds, satisfied that he'd captured his image, he exited the frame. Mumler was hoping to get a
sharp picture of himself, which was difficult to achieve
for a new photographer. As he began developing and the image appeared on the plate, Mumler saw himself, but not only himself. Seated in the chair next to him, inches away from his hand, was the diaphanous form
of a girl in white, a visitor, a mystery, a spirit. In just minutes, William Mumler went from an amateur photography enthusiast to the father of a movement. (dramatic music) Today I'm at the Penumbra Foundation, in their north light photo studio, built to the specifications of
an actual 1850s photo studio. We're working with
photographer Jolene Lupo, and her colleague, Sam Dole. You may remember Jolene from our Victorian
mourning photography video, and today we're recreating
spirit photographs.
Now I'll just give you
the spoiler up front, spirit photographs created
in the 1800's were fake. (buzzer buzzes) That's actually why we're doing this. We know they're fake, but we don't know exactly how photographers created these eerie images. Most of the methods were never revealed, so Jolene is working with period cameras and period techniques to try
and discover how they did it. The first photo of the day is what we're calling the Mumler classic, the quintessential spirit photo that Mumler would become famous for. A translucent spirit
appears to be standing next to or behind the sitter,
arms draped around the living. In a twist, today I am my own ghost. Ladies, be your own ghost. Ooh, spooky. I am the ghost of latte
past, the Victorian latte. This technique we're gonna
be using for this photo, is this exactly what
Mumler would have done? – We really don't know
what, how Mumler did it.
– So it's a big mystery? – It absolutely a big mystery. – Mm, a historical mystery. – The technique though
is as close as possible as I found to make something that looks like one of Mumler's photos. – This is an ongoing experiment for you. – Oh yeah. Actually like the
technique we're doing today is a slightly different technique than I've ever done before.
So this will be an experiment. – I'm obviously starting off as the ghost. If I was in Mumler's studio, would I know I was here to be a ghost? Like, am I a ghost for hire?
Am I collaborating with you? What do we know about that? – I think some of the ghosts
absolutely were collaborators, just based on how they
looked in the photos, standing behind, arms draped over what would be the sitter's neck. Some of them maybe are
a little less obvious, where they're a little to the side, but I definitely think
some of them were in on it. – So I'm a ghost who
knows, I'm an aware ghost. To set me up as the ghost, Jolene and Sam need to
make sure there'll be a perfect human-shaped
space for a living person to be inserted later when
both images are combined.
Louise, my partner in video crime, who ate the cremation feed block, so you know she's down for anything. – That's really good. – Sat under the black sheet as a stand-in for where the living
Caitlin image would be. Jolene exposed our very first
plate and the magic begins. Yes, the photographs were fake, but it's worthwhile to
explore why people of the time wanted so badly for the images to be real. Spirit photography became popular when America was deeply in mourning. During and after the Civil War, Americans were in national shock, rich, poor, Black, white, north, south, the war killed indiscriminately. Wealthy New Englanders
especially seemed to wrestle with the fact that all of their money couldn't save their loved ones from dying on the battlefield. In their search for answers,
they turned to a religion that was experiencing a
rebirth, spiritualism. (dramatic music) We've done a whole video on spiritualism, so I won't go too far
down the rabbit hole, but in short, spiritualism was more than just mediums talking to ghosts.
Although it did involve quite
a lot of talking to ghosts. – I see dead people. – The ideology provided hope
that loved ones weren't gone, but nearby, in another existence. From the 1860s through
the early 20th century, spiritualists numbered in the millions, reaching as many as 8
million in the late 1890s. Now William Mumler was not among them. He was a skeptic. By trade, he was an engraver. Mumler had the reputation as a trustworthy and honest
man, a self-made man. For Mumler, spiritualism and
other activities of the wealthy held no interest for him, at first. Something of a midlife
crisis in his early 30s led him to search for new
outlets for his talents. It's around this time that he
met Mrs. Hannah Green Stuart. Hannah was a married woman
with an absent husband, absent husband. She owned a photography studio and gallery not far from Mumler's own shop. Hannah Stuart was full
late Victorian vibes. Beyond her skill in the brand
new profession of photography, Stuart created mourning
keepsakes out of hair, and also touted herself as a medium.
Stuart's charm and abilities also made her photo studio
popular and profitable. Mumler became a permanent fixture there, and the two married
after Stuart's husband, a soldier, was killed
in Louisiana in 1863. It was at the future Mrs. Mumler's studio that William Mumler shot
his spirit photograph, with the ghost child by his side. Even though the child
was there clear as day, his first thought wasn't ghost, but that he, an amateur, had
made some sort of mistake.
Mumler consulted a more
experienced photographer. The conclusion was that
Mumler had accidentally used an old plate that had not
been cleaned properly, leaving a prior image still on the glass. Mumler was satisfied with this explanation and decided that his photo
was just an amusing novelty. (evil laughter) – No! – He'd have it printed to
quote, show my friends, but again, Mumler accepted that his ghost was merely a product of his inexperience. But Hannah Stuart, his love and owner of the photography
studio thought otherwise.
– It's the portrait of a spirit. – Explained Hannah. Oh Hannah, no, I see why you would. Yeah, I, I, I see what you see, but no, total misunderstanding. – One who has left her body behind yet had taken this method of communicating with those yet in bondage to the flesh. – Oh, Mumler is going to have
to keep making these photos, like a lot of them.
(mysterious music) The first ghost plate wasn't
quite what Jolene wanted, so we went for a second attempt. This ghost was Jolene approved. – [Jolene] That might work, yeah. – So it was time for me to
quit dying and get to living. I'm now the average Mumler client, a Victorian with a longing for a ghost to appear beside me on film. This is so kinky somehow. This is a neck brace? – So this is just gonna keep you still during the long exposure,
give you something to rest on. – The Muller spirit photography
train quickly gathered steam from the original photograph. Seemingly out of nowhere,
Dr. H. F. Gardner, a well known spiritualist,
came to visit Mumler.
Dr. Gardner was a physician that in 1858 had hosted a disastrous debate at Harvard between skeptics and believers. The Fox sisters, celebrities
of spirit communication, had been featured and their demonstration of spirit rappings and
knocks was not well received. Overall, it was an embarrassing event. How did Dr. Gardner even hear
of the Mumler spirit photo? Did Hannah Stuart, professional
medium, tip him off? We'll likely never know, but let's just say the
spiritualism movement needed a win, and Dr.
Gardner was on the hunt for one. Maybe spirit photography was
exactly what they needed. When Dr. Gardner arrived, Mumler claims that he was not at that time being inclined to spiritual belief myself, and being of a jovial disposition,
always ready for a joke. I concluded to have a little fun, as I thought at his expense. So Mumler is admitting to
trolling Dr. Gardner here, to doing it for the lulz, starting a movement based on a prank. – What, what? (laughs) – Mumler shows Dr. Gardner
the photo in question and famously states that this
picture was taken by myself when there was no visible
person present but myself. Dr. Gardner is like, "Dude, this is major, and I totally believe you" and asks Mumler to write his statement on the back of the photo and sign it. Mumler does this like, "Okay, boomer," and gives Gardner the
photo to take with him. Let's note again that
this is Mumler's account of how this all started, although I'm not sure if the
practical joke troll angle makes him look better or worse here. Mumler allegedly thought that
that would be the end of that.
It was not the end of that, and things escalated quickly from there. Dr. Gardner gave the photo to
a major spiritualist journal in New York City, Herald of Progress, and they published it along
with Mumler's statement. At first, Mumler says he was, quote, mortified at what he
considered misrepresentation. Misrepresentation or the exact
thing you told him, my man? But thinking New York
City was too far away to really impact his life in
Boston, he let the matter go, but the photo would
come back to haunt him. Haunt him, because it's
spirit photography. (drum rim shot) The other major spiritualist
journal, The Banner of Light, with circulation in the tens of thousands, picked up the story. This journal had its office
only a couple hundred feet from Muller's business
on Washington Street.
And they went one further. Banner of Light published
the exact address of Hannah Stuart's photography studio, 258 Washington Street. Mumler was like, "Well, that's not good." And ran over to the studio to come clean about his prank to Hannah. Upon entering the studio,
Mumler crossed the threshold from one life to another. Already at the counter, working
the crowd as only she could, Hannah Stuart looked up as
Mumler entered and announced. – Here comes Mr. Mumler! – Immediately, everyone
congregated in the studio descended upon Mumler. They congratulated him,
asked him how he did it, and most of all, asked to sit for him in the hopes of conjuring a spirit. At first, Mumler refused, but after much prodding, he relented and photographed two
especially determined men. One man got a spirit
photo and one did not. Mumler always said that he
couldn't guarantee a ghost. From there on, Mumler's popularity soared. With living Caitlin now
exposed on the glass plate, Jolene headed to the dark room to combine it with the ghost photo. By combine, we mean lining
up the two photos just right and then exposing the
combined images to light for a final effect of
the spirit behind me.
In case this attempt didn't work, I had to sit absolutely
motionless in the same spot by myself while everyone else got to go party in the dark room. – [Woman] I'm gonna go check on Caitlin. – Okay, yeah.
(laughing) Oh, right, 'cause she's
still in the chair, yeah. I mean, Caitlin looks good. The exposure on her looks good. It's the head that I want, obviously. You wanna see the ghost face, although on that positive and negative, the face is the least apparent. – [Caitlin] This time was close, but in the spirit of
investigation, emphasis on spirit, Jolene decided that we could
do a better living Caitlin. A little more light here,
a little less light there. Caitlin, make your face more dour. And our efforts paid off. – All right, we got it. – Ah, oh my gosh, I'm done? Okay.
Yeah. I'm really back there. So this, so you really
did recreate this photo with all of the techniques
that Mumler may have used. – That he may have used, yeah. I mean, it's all with original methods done in camera with glass plates. This is something that,
yeah, he could have done. – [Caitlin] This was the classic Mumler. This is the one that he did
with hundreds of people. – [Jolene] A person sitting,
the ghost coming from behind with their hands wrapped around
the neck, classic Mumler. – Mumler's work became
celebrated by spiritualists and those yearning for a
look at a dead loved one. He devoted himself to it full time, earning more than he
ever had in the process. While we may never know
what Mumler really thought of spiritualism, by his own account, over time, he claims
to have come to believe that the spirits were truly with him. He got a little high on his own supply. This is the most interesting aspect to me.
Spirit photography wasn't seen
as only supernatural belief. It could also be science. Perhaps these photos were capturing things unseen by the human eye, just like Louis Pasteur
did with germ theory. Those who defended the photos argued that they were just like
electricity or the telegram. Not all science was
visible to the naked eye, and the camera was able to
capture what the eye could not. But obviously there people
who remained skeptical and believed they could find the strings in Mumler's illusion. Jacob E. Black was an
experienced and respected Boston photographer who
bears the distinction of being the first person to
capture an aerial photograph of an American city, with the help of a
balloon and an aerialist. Dr. Gardner, the spiritualist
who was not entirely devoid of the fact-checking instinct, had brought Mumler's
photo to Black to ask him if he could create it through
mechanical contrivance. Essentially, can this be done
through non-spiritual means? Black, even with his 20
years experience, could not. However, Black wasn't
willing to just let it go. So he sent his assistant Horace Weston to have a spirit
photograph taken by Mumler.
Weston not only got a ghost
resembling his dead father in the picture, he said he couldn't spot anything different from
the normal photo process. Weston suggested that Black himself visit Mumler for a sitting. Black did one better and
said he'd pay Mumler $50, a fortune compared to Mumler's usual already high fee of $10, if he'd allow him to witness everything. Mumler challenged Black to be thorough in your investigations, to which Black replied, "Oh,
you may rest assured of that." (chuckles) 19th century man drama. Mumler showed Black his camera, the glass plate he was
to use for the photo, both of which Black examined and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
He then showed Black to his dark room and let him observe
him preparing the plate by coating it in collodion
and immersing it in silver. From that point on, Black told Mumler, I don't lose sight of this plate. Black examined Mumler's plate holder, which he suspected to have a false back, but dismissed that suspicion and the men proceeded to the skylight room where Black's photo would be taken.
Black kept an eagle eye on Mumler for the entire sitting, and when the plate was ready
to be brought to the dark room, Black carried it there himself. Mumler poured the chemicals on the plate, and as if being conjured, two images appeared in the negative, one of Black and one of a form
previously unseen by Black. "My God," cried Black. Is it possible?
(dramatic music) Our second photo is the attempt to do another popular Mumler image, what we called the Mumler mourning photo. In this photo, there's no live sitter, only a spirit reaching toward a portrait. If you couldn't make it to his studio, for $7.50, you could
send Mumler a description of your departed that
you hoped to see again, and Mumler would conjure
that spirit and capture it. A mail order spirit basically. I was once again a ghost
for hire in this photo. Jolene arranging me in
a mournful position, reaching out to my beloved's portrait.
We got one exposure of me and then a separate exposure
of the table with the portrait. And after several attempts, we had the photo of my spirit
reaching out from the beyond. So you said that this is
a double exposure, right? – Yeah, this one's a double exposure. This image also in contrast
with the first one, is just obviously the
photograph with the ghost. With the first one, that one
could be done with the sitter not even knowing the ghost existed. – Fascination with Mumler's
spirit photographs flourished, but even after J. W.
Black's investigation, Mumler still struggled with skeptics calling him a fraud or a swindler. These skeptics weren't
all cranky atheists, many came from within the
spiritualist community. Even the Herald of Progress, the journal that had least celebrated him, changed course and expressed
doubt in his legitimacy. Feeling harassed, Mumler
began declining requests to investigate his practices, which of course led people
to wonder what he was hiding. It also really didn't help
that Mumler was caught on more than one occasion, reusing a ghost from a previous sitting.
In one such circumstance,
John Letham, a spiritualist, saw one of Mumler's spirit photographs in the Banner of Light's office. The ghost looked awfully
familiar to Letham. He compared the photo to
one that his friend had, and lo and behold, it was the same ghost. Now maybe the ghost is just
the resident ghost, right? Like died in the, died
in the Mumler building? But upon showing the
picture to a third friend, he confirmed that the
spirit in the photograph was not a ghost at all, but a living woman who had come
to sit at the Mumler studio to have her portrait taken.
From there, the fallout was swift. Most of the big dogs in
New England spiritualism, including Mumler's original
hype man, Dr. Gardner, turned their backs on Mumler. So damning were the doubts
that his clientele dwindled to the point that the Mumlers, they had married at this point and Hannah Stuart was now Mrs. Mumler, closed their studio and moved
to New York York City in 1868, hoping for a fresh start. Mumler did spark the
interest of a journalist, Dublin-born Patrick V.
Hickey. As a science correspondent
for the New York World, Hickey was not just an investigator,
but a staunch Catholic. Catholics of the time
condemned spiritualism, and spirit photography
as the devil's work. Hickey saw it as his duty as
a journalist and a Catholic to take down Mumler. Hickey spent a day at Mumler's studio, watching how he took photographs
and conducted business. Then he went over to city
hall and filed a complaint. City marshal Joseph Tooker
investigated the complaint and went to Mumler's
for a spirit photograph under the fake name, William Wallace. – But they'll never take our freedom! – Mumler took the photo, and when Tooker returned
the following day to pay and collect Wallace's photos, he arrested Mumler on
charges of fraud and larceny. In an attempt to shut down Mumler, the likes of Hickey
and Tooker had in fact, thrust him even further
into the public eye. In the spring of 1869, William
Mumler was put on trial. The prosecution tasked with
answering the question, can it be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mumler's spirit photographs are fake? The spirit photography trial
was grueling for Mumler, but it proved equally
grueling for the prosecution.
It should have been an open and shut case. Even PT Barnum took the
stand against Mumler. (rock music) The problem was, as
we've already explained, no one could pin down his
methods with any certainty. The prosecution produced a list created by photography experts of nine ways that Mumler
could have created his photos by technical means and trickery. Mumler's, gotta give him credit, his excellent defense team
responded in agreement.
They were like, "Yeah,
you can totally do it those nine ways. That's just not how Mumler did it. He did it with ghosts, Your Honor." Mumler's lawyer, John Townsend, would say in his closing
remarks that the prosecution sought to hunt down the
prisoner and fix on him the brand of cheat and humbug, all because they just didn't get it. Mumler was eventually acquitted, not because the judge
thought he was actually taking photographs of spirits, but because the prosecution, quote, failed to prove the case. On one hand, this was great
news for William Mumler. After a month in holding at Manhattan's infamous detention
center known as the tombs, he was free to go, but the
trial had taken its toll. Despite winning the case, Mumler's reputation was forever damaged. He went back to Boston and resumed taking spirit photographs,
but at a much lower profile. For a time, the Mumlers depended more on Hannah Mumler's clairvoyant abilities. And then eventually
Mumler's own inventions, like the process for printing
photos in newspapers, which was a game changer in journalism.
Oddly, one of Mumler's last
photos is also his most famous. In 1872, Mary Todd Lincoln sat for Mumler, the last photo of her life. The photo shows the spirit of her husband, Abraham Lincoln, standing behind her, his hands placed gently on her shoulders. William Mumler died in 1884. He leaves the legacy as the
most famous spirit photographer, but one guy does not a movement make. There was also Frenchmen
Edouard Isidore Buguet, who rose to fame in the 1870s
as a spirit photographer, but fell from grace just as quickly when he was charged with fraud and admitted to using double exposures. There was Robert Boursnell, a medium who gained
attention in the early 1900s, who was also accused of fraud. Unlike Mumler, it was actually
proven that he was reprinting already existing photos into his images. But even with that proof, he still retained the respect
of his true believers.
Englishman William Hope created
some of the most compelling spirit photography in
the early 20th century, garnering the admiration
of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and an investigation
and subsequent debunking by famed paranormal
investigator Harry Price. But some of the most
important spirit photographs actually came before William Mumler, the photographs of Sir David Brewster. If he came before Mumler, why was Mumler the spiritualists' darling? Well, unlike Mumler, Sir
David Brewster stated plainly and often that his spirit photos were for the purposes of amusement.
Brewster was a giant of
photographic innovation in the 1850s. He invented the kaleidoscope and the lenses for the stereoscope. In chapter 14 of his 1856 publication, "The Stereoscope, Its History,
Theory, and Construction," he gives clear instructions on
how to create a spirit photo, with emphasis on how
it's a fun parlor trick. Writes Brewster, "for
the purpose of amusement, the photographer may carry us even into the regions
of the supernatural." Brewster's method was one of
the ones used against Mumler when the prosecution listed it as a way he could have faked a photo.
The method was described as
a figure clothed in white can be introduced for a
moment behind the sitter and then withdrawn before
the sitting is over, leaving a shadowy image on the plate. This is known as Sir
David Brewster's ghost. Brewster's famous "The
Ghost in the Stereoscope" illustrates this method perfectly. By this point in a long day, we were all a little loopy, and getting to tackle Sir
David Brewster's ghost photo was just pure mayhem for our cabal of early photography nerds. For this photo, Jolene used
a totally different camera in order to achieve a
stereoscopic or 3D effect. – For the next shot, we're
gonna be using a stereo camera. Has two lenses that are spaced
just a little bit apart, similar to the way our eyes see things, so when you view the images together, you get the illusion of
three dimensionality. – Part of setting up this
elaborate shot was that photos like this were never
meant to trick the viewer. So we had the freedom to be
as silly as we wanted to be. In high school, I printed a
William Brewster spirit photo off of my mom's printer
and put it in a frame and had it in my room.
And I thought it was the
coolest thing I had ever seen. And now I'm recreating
it. I am living my dreams. You too, whatever dream
you have, high schoolers, you too can live your dream. While this photo might have
had the most elaborate setup, on the technical side, it
was the simplest to recreate. Once the skeleton ghost and I
were set in the shot just so, Jolene exposed the plate,
began the countdown, and after a few seconds, Sam
yanked the ghost out of frame. The hardest part was the almost 45 seconds of holding this ridiculous pose. In the end it was all worth it, because kids, teenage dreams do come true.
Creating spirit photography
has fallen out of favor. Jolene is one of the few remaining specialists and practitioners. Spiritualism has also fallen out of favor, at least in the mainstream, but there's no shortage of
people who prey on the grieving by promising a connection with the beyond. Did Mumler actually prey on the grieving? Did he even do something wrong? There's a strain of argument that says no, that he was responding to a demand, a desperate, grief-addled demand. On our spiritualism video,
we had multiple comments saying it's terrible that mediums were defrauding families like this, but they shouldn't be confused
with real spirit mediums, like me, which no comment on that.
I mean, not, not even a shady no comment. Like I genuinely don't know. You may be speaking to the dead. I don't defraud anyone,
but who am I to say whether or not you're
speaking to the dead? – I see dead people. – The dead are certainly
don't speak to me, which is very frustrating,
'cause I love, I love the dead.
– All the time. – Hi guys. Or despite Mumler's insistence
that he saw the light and was actually capturing real spirits, do we see him as a con man
who only saw the spirits when he saw the money coming in? I can't stand the idea
that anyone grieving was truly deceived and conned, but I also can't stand the idea of these photos not existing. I find them gorgeous works of art from the magical liminal
space of early photography, when science and the supernatural
were one in the same. And I'm pleased as punch
that I had the opportunity to be in some of them,
no deception involved. Special thanks to Jeffrey Berliner and the staff of the Penumbra Foundation. They're an amazing educational resource where you can learn how
to take historical photos and preserve the history
and heritage of photography.
Jolene learned so much from
this particular session, she's even thinking of
offering a class on it. If that happens, we'll
put the information below. And thank you as always to our patrons who allow us to dive so
deep into these topics and hopefully create an interesting educational world for you. It is our greatest joy and privilege.
(spooky music) (dance music) ♪ Party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Mr. Mumler ♪ ♪ There's a party in the dark room ♪ ♪ It's a party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Be your own ghost ♪ ♪ Wanna party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Ladies, so much fun ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Fun party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Fun party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Fun, fun ♪ ♪ Party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Fun, be your own ghost ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Ladies, fun ♪ ♪ Party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Ladies, fun ♪ ♪ There's a party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Gonna party like it's 1861 ♪ ♪ Be your own ghost, fun ♪ ♪ Be your own ghost, ladies ♪ ♪ Be your own ghost ♪ ♪ It's a party in the dark room ♪ ♪ Oh my god, girl, you're so spooky ♪ ♪ Be your own ghost ♪ (spooky music)
