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Mumler Spirit Photograph Carte de Visite *with new information about the subject

One of the best known practitioners of spirit photography was William Mumler. In the 1860s he was one of the first photographers to claim the ability to record "extras" of departed spirits in photographs. He was prosecuted but never convicted of fraud.

 

This is one of two cdvs by Mumler in our collection. An extra stands behind a man and hands him a cross. Since the man looks down at the cross and subjects in spirit photographs most often seem unaware of the extras around them it seems likely that he is a medium with the ability to see the extras.

 

* New Information: To our delight there is a reproduction of the same image in Kaplan's book The Strange Case of William Mumler. It is from the Getty Museum and identifies the man as Harry Gordon.

 

From the internet we learn the Henry C. Gordon (also know as Harry Gordon) was the first American medium credited with levitation in February of 1851.

 

 

 

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Uploaded on February 3, 2008