William Mumler claimed he could photograph ghosts … and no one could prove he couldn’t.
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In the mid-1800s, the development of exciting new forms of communication, like photography and the telegraph, was considered miraculous. This technology also coincided with a new religious movement becoming popular in the US and Europe: spiritualism. Spiritualists believed that, through the use of a medium, contact with the dead was possible. During the bloody American Civil War (1861-1865), belief in Spiritualism grew.
It was during this time that William Mumler, an amateur photographer in Boston, claimed he could photograph ghosts. He and his wife Hannah, herself a professional photographer and Spiritualist medium, created a stir in Boston by selling these “spirit portraits,” and attracted the attention of Spiritualists and skeptics alike. Professional photographers in Boston investigated Mumler’s method again and again but couldn’t figure out how he did his trick.
After accusations of fraud piled up in Boston, the Mumler’s relocated to New York City, the photographic capital of the US. Here, Mumler was quickly arrested on fraud charges, and his trial was sensationalized in New York newspapers. The prosecution even brought in circus showman P.T. Barnum to testify against Mumler. But, like the photographers in Boston, no one could confidently identify his method — and Mumler was acquitted.
Once the trial was over, the Mumlers’ spirit photography business boomed. They photographed prominent Americans, including Mary Todd Lincoln and William Lloyd Garrison, and even took mail-in orders from people who couldn’t visit their studio in Boston. We visited photographic process historian Mark Osterman to demonstrate how Mumler could have used two negatives, printed simultaneously with a bit of sleight of hand, to fool witnesses into believing his “ghosts” were the real thing.
Our director of photography in Annapolis, Maryland, was Colin Faust.
Darkroom is a history and photography series that anchors each episode around a single image. Analyzing what the photo shows (or doesn’t show) provides context that helps unravel a wider story. Watch previous episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ8cMiYb3G5ce8J4P5j5qOEtYR94Z3DQs
Note: The headline on this piece has been updated.
Previous headline: We tried to recreate this famous photo of a ghost
The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer, by Louis Kaplan:
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-strange-case-of-william-mumler-spirit
The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln’s Ghost, by Peter Manseau:
https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/The-Apparitionists/9780544745988
Helen F. Stuart and Hannah Frances Green: The Original Spirit Photographer, by Felicity T.C. Hamer:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03087298.2018.1498491
The Getty Museum’s collection of Mumler’s spirit photographs:
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/8627/william-h-mumler-american-1832-1884/
Archive of “Banner of Light” and other Spiritualist newspapers:
http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/banner_of_light/index.html
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Dig into the past one photograph at a time with more Darkroom episodes, see the full playlist here: https://bit.ly/35ZRj4J
So Ancient Photoshop.
Wouldn't the people watching see them drawing on the camera and lining up a person with the drawing though?
This still does not answer the question. Your theory suggests that his wife played all the roles of dead loved ones and relatives? There were possibly hundreds of different age and sexes!
but did he have the photos of the deceased to do this trick?
Ask a mortician already did this with a photographer friend in New York and they recreated the ghost photo from old time equipment at least a year ago.
So the models for the ghost negatives didn’t snitch
WHY WAR? WHY?!!!
The problem is, where did he get all that dead people photo?
Photoshop of the past
This is wonderful!! Thank you!
Well i think its a scam like the one you did to charlie chaplin with his mother.
The problem with your method is the ghost is not transparent and Mumlers is…
So the woman was the medium and the expert in photography yet the husband took all the credit… yep that sounds about right. It’s sad how many women have been erased from history, it’s until the late 1970s with the women’s rights movement that they start getting credited for their accomplishments. Before that, only white males were credited for anything lol
Noeaday, we have deceased 'chatbot'. Human and our fear of death and nothingness.
HERE ME LIVING WITH HALF DEMON AND HALF HUMAN SOUL 😈🧡
INSIDE ME
Everything is possible, one cannot deny that they were actually sprits. It's just our arrogance and over belief in science which is blinding us from such experiences.
Oh
1:37 is a photograph of King Kamehameha III, Queen Kalama, and their niece and nephews.
Wow!
interesting
The first photoshop in the history?
I like how many vox video don't explain the most important things in the videos and leave everone clueless
I would love to have one made!
there's just something I don't like about these ghost websights are produced! ❌❌❌
Well the theory was quite interesting,but it also have no point.
Why would someone dress in white in those days, just to act as a ghost in a picture 🤷
Then: Criminal Activity
Now: Historical
The Early king of “photoshop” ….
well done Hannah Stuart! In helping Mumler contact spirits for his photography, you both were able to bring the dearly departed back into the lives of those whom missed them.
Og photoshop
I just realised that so many city names in America and city names in England are so similar
Season? Well it’s your channel you can call it whatever you like. Interesting that humans have the need to live even after death!
Just weird and creepy.