Spirit photography, as it sounds, is a type of photography that tries to capture pictures of the spirits of dead people. It became popular in the mid-19th century, shortly after photography was invented. William H Mumler was one of the first people to take spirit photographs.
Many people believe that spirit photographs are evidence of the existence of the spirit world or the afterlife. Spirit photography was popular from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.
The First Spirit Photograph that William H Mumler, who was a jewelry engraver and amateur photographer, created was apparently taken accidentally when he shot a double-exposure image. Later, it turned out that he took a picture of himself in 1862 that also showed the spirit of his dead cousin standing behind him.
According to The New Yorker, regarding the photo as a curio, he began to pass it around, garnering astonishment and acclaim from the city's thriving spiritualist community. As word spread, Mumler's hobby became a lucrative business, and soon he was taking spirit photographs from dusk till dawn, summoning lost loves beneath his skylight, and dispensing solace to a public addled by the rising death count of the Civil War. His images retain their intimate, macabre tint even now.
The Man Who “Captured” Lincoln's Ghost on Camera
The Guinness Book of World Records reported that some of Mumler's most famous photos include Mary Todd Lincoln with the spirit of her husband, Abraham Lincoln. According to the book Ghosts Caught on Film, the photograph was taken around 1869. Mumler supposedly didn't know that the spirit in the photograph was Lincoln and did not realize who it was until the photo was developed.
Controversies
The GWR refers to a History article and mentions that Peter Manseau, curator of American religious history at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, says Mumler was a fraudster but admits he did not know how the photographer managed to pull off his hoax.
“It was a genuine religious movement that meant a lot to people at a time when the nation was going through mourning and loss like it never had before,” Manseau said in the article.
According to the history article, there was a case where Mumler created a spirit photograph for a woman who had recently lost her brother in the Civil War. Eventually, her brother returned home, but rather than accusing Mumler of fraud, the woman blamed it on an evil spirit trying to deceive her.
