Do you see pictures of ghosts on your interwebs? Here's how that started.

Arthur Conan Doyle believed. So did many others. Some mocked, and today, we whisper 'photoshop'. But 'spirit photography' was once all the rage. Read all about it in J Traill Taylor, The veil lifted: modern developments of spirit photography, 1894. Here's an excerpt and a sample. Try not to laugh, we dare you.

The most authentic ghost photos are the hardest to get hold of. They are in the hands of private amateur photographers, who are shy of lending or showing them¹ because they are
shy of being accused of fraud or folly²; besides, to them these photos are often sacred, or they seem to portray the features of the beloved dead. I believe Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., one of the greatest scientists living – the renowned inventor of the radiometer³ – has obtained spirit photos of a materialised form that appeared apart from the medium, and moved about the room freely while a continuous current of electricity was being passed through the entranced medium, so that she could not move without betraying the motion. But, like the wise man he is⁴, Mr. Crookes, after having tasted the quality of scientific bigotry, and already suffered somewhat for his ardour in the pursuit of unpopular and novel truth – Mr. Crookes, I say, keeps certain experiences, together with his abnormal photos, to himself, and will not now even show them. It is of no importance to him what those who do not and cannot know the facts think about them⁵. They belong to his laboratory work. Why should he bother himself with a crowd of outsiders Of course, no spirit photo, of itself, can bear conviction, nor is it possible to produce about it in a journal any evidence that will. The two spirit photos I have been prevailed upon to allow the Editor of the Daily Graphic⁶ to use with this open letter are, nevertheless, of considerable interest, (i) The lady seated went with her daughter. She did not tell the photographer who was in her thoughts. She thought of and longed for her father to appear. She did not even tell her daughter or any one else the mental test⁷. She thought that her father should appear wearing a peculiar black cap which he commonly used during the last days of his illness⁸. That test was never revealed before the plate was developed; but it was answered, as may be seen in the photo (see opposite); the features also are too marked to allow of any doubt⁹.

Ed Note: We don't know about you, but we are convinced. It only remains to explain why ghosts insist on walking around draped in sheets from the White Sale. Maybe they have fashion statements over in the Summerland, too.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

31.10.16 Front Page

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