In this episode, Annabelle talks about spirit photography and its connections to the history of photography as a technology and artistic medium. We also discuss the infamous Mumler trial and how it is a great example of 19th-century attitudes toward skepticism, faith, and death. Finally, we wrap up our discussion of Spiritualism (for now) with reflections on the scale of the Spiritualist movement (hint: it was huge) and why it still matters today. Also, if you listen to the end, Quest, by popular demand, tells you what was up with D.D. Hume and those Russian emeralds.

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Bibliography

• The Apparitionists by Peter Manseau
• Calling the Spirits by Lisa Morton, Chapter 4: The Victorians and Spiritualism; or, The Seance is Born
• Looking Askance: Skepticism and American Art from Eakins to Duchamp by Michael Leja
• “The Medium on the Stage: Theatricality and Performance in the Spirit Séance” from Supernatural Entertainments by Simone Natale
• “Where Paranoid Meets the Paranormal: Speculations on Spirit Photography” by Louis Kaplan May 2014Art Journal 62(3):18-27

Links and Further Reading

• Conrad Young, Contemporary Tintype Photographer in Southern California: https://www.conradfilm.com/
• Last Photo of Abraham Lincoln: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/12/28/lincoln-death-photo/
• Vice on ghost photography: https://youtu.be/Xsx6xqi0vzU
• (Our Queen) Caitlin Doughty on spirit photography: https://youtu.be/BNuV6bRStXU
• More on Death and the American Civil War: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust