What do philanthropist Jane Stanford, author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln have in common? They all conducted séances. Spiritualism was popular in the Gilded Age, and Lily Dale, NY is the epicenter of the movement. From the voices that gave you Dig: A History Podcast comes Spiritualism's Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale. One of the authors - Dr. Elizabeth Garner Masarik - joins the show to discuss their new book.

Essential Reading:

Averill Earls, Sarah Handley-Cousins, Marissa Rhodes, and Elizabeth Garner Masarik, Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale (2024).

Recommended Reading:

Robert S. Cox, Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism (2003).

Molly McGarry, Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America (2008).

Bret E. Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (1997).

Cathy Gutierrez, Plato's Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance (2009).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.