The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer by Louis Kaplan

Barnum's accusation was one of many in a chorus of voices that had accused Mumler of staging ghosts of people who were still in fact living, and breaking into houses to steal photos of deceased relatives. Barnum, who claimed that Mumler was taking advantage of people whose judgment was clouded by grief. Mumler's wife, Hannah Mumler, was also a famous healing medium, and conducted her own spiritual business in addition to the business of assisting her husband.

Spirit photography was a lucrative business thanks to the enormous death tolls that resulted from the American Civil War, and the thousands of families who sought reassurance that their loved ones live on after death. Mumler then became a full-time spirit photographer, continuing to work in Boston but eventually moving to New York City, where his work was analyzed by numerous photography experts, none of whom could find any evidence of fraud. This is widely credited as the first spirit photograph-a photograph of a living subject featuring the likeness of a deceased person (often a relative) imprinted by the spirit of the deceased. In the early 1860s, he developed a self-portrait that appeared to feature the apparition of his cousin who had been dead for 12 years. This picture was then tendered in evidence at Mumler's trial for fraud to show how easy it was to forge spirit photographs.īefore beginning his career as a spirit photographer, Mumler worked as a jewellery engraver in Boston, practicing amateur photography in his spare time. Barnum hired Abraham Bogardus to fabricate this photo of Barnum and the 'ghost' of Abraham Lincoln. He later discovered a process, called the 'Mumler Process', by which photo-electrotype plates could be produced and printed more easily. Today, Mumler's photographs are recognized as fakes but they circulated widely during the last quarter of the 19th century and were marketed as objects of belief and visual curiosities both within and beyond the spiritualist movement.

He was later acquitted by a judge, and his photography career continued. Mumler was eventually taken to court and tried for fraud and larceny. His two most famous images are the photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband Abraham Lincoln and the portrait of Master Herrod, a medium, with three spirit guides. Mumler then left his job as an engraver to pursue spirit photography full-time, taking advantage of the large number of people who had lost relatives in the American Civil War. His first spirit photograph was apparently an accident-a self-portrait which, when developed, also revealed the 'spirit' of his deceased cousin.

Mumler (1832–1884) was an American spirit photographer who worked in New York and Boston. Mumler from an engraving that appeared in Harper's Magazine, May 1869.

The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer by Louis Kaplan