KUSA -It was the late 1880s, and the nation was ravaged by death: a civil war, disease, and everything in between.
Surrounded by memories of their lost loved ones, the subject of Spiritualism and especially ‘Spirit Photography' took the late 19th century tabloid world by storm.
It was a time of great debate over whether spirits existed, as so many had lost husbands, brothers, infants and wives.
One photographer, based out of Boston, and then, New York, claimed he had found a way to capture those lost souls in portrait photographs.
It was 1862 and William Mumler reported taking a self-portrait that appeared to also feature the apparition of his cousin, who had been dead for 12 years.
Tabloids and journals frantically picked up his story, and debate raged in Spiritualist magazines about the validity of the pictures: were they real or were they doctored?
By 1869, Mumler's spirit photographs had become the subject of rich public debate and even urban legend. Was Mumler a fraud?
Some said he could get the images of ‘spirits' by reusing photography plates which already had indelible impressions on the glass during development.
An investigator, William Guay, was sent to test Mumler for any trickery. He reported back that he watched the entire process and believed it to be real. That report would later come under scrutiny when it was found Guay was actually in a business partnership with Mumler.
Mumler's fees were extravagant. At the height of his success, Mumler charged $10 for a dozen photographs, or five times the going rate, with no guarantee that any spirit "extras" would appear. Often they did not, and clients had to make repeated trips to Mumler's studio before they were blessed with a presence.
One of Mumler's most famous portraits is of Mary Todd Lincoln, who Mumler wrote about in his autobiography. He wrote that she came in to his Boston studio in 1871, asking for a portrait. He only realized who she was after his negatives were developed and he saw her in embrace by the ghost of her husband, Abraham Lincoln.
In February 1869, the New York Sun published "A Wonderful Mystery: Ghosts Sitting for Their Portraits."
Mumler told the paper he believed the pictures were "produced by departed spirits who are attached to the sitters by affection or relationship or affinity." He claimed to use no trickery to capture the spirits in photos.
Yet in the spring of that year, Mumler was in front of the Court of Special Sessions for a hearing on charges of fraud.
Mumler went in front of a judge, and was eventually acquitted.
However, his career was ruined and he died in poverty in 1884.
What do you think of the spirit photos?
(© 2015 KUSA)
