William Lloyd Garrison with Ghost, c. 1862

William Lloyd Garrison with spirit, taken between 1862 - 1875. Garrison (1805-1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. This albumen silver print was created by William H. Mumler (American, 1832 - 1884); Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Spirit photography was believed to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities. It was especially popular in the 19th century, first used by William H. Mumler in the 1860s. He discovered the technique by accident, after he discovered a second person in a photograph he took of himself, which he found was actually a double exposure. Seeing there was a market for it, Mumler started working as a medium, taking people's pictures and doctoring the negatives to add lost loved ones (mostly using other photographs as basis). Mumler's fraud was discovered after he put identifiable living Boston residents in the photos as spirits; however, the practice was adopted by other photographers and remained popular through the second half of the 19th century

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Abolition Abolitionist Allhalloween Allhallowtide Alloween Anti-slavery Antislavery Apparition Apparitional Campaigner Charlatan Conman Crusader Experience Exposure Fake Fraud Fraudulent Garrison Ghostly Halloween Hallows Haunt Haunted Haunting Manifestation Mumler Parapsychology Phantasm Phony Poltergeist Pseudo-science Pseudo-scientific Pseudoscience Pseudoscientific Psychic Reform Reformer Revenant Scam Shade Sham Sighting Specter Spectre Spiritualism Spiritualist Spook Suffragist Supernatural Trick Wraith

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