Though The Apparitionists is the first attempt to consider William Mumlerâs story in the context of early-American daguerreotypists and the photographers of the Civil War, I have relied on many books on these and other subjects to stitch together several historical strands into a single narrative.
The secondary sources to which I have turned for inspiration, leads, and understanding of the times in which Mumler lived include D. Mark Katz, Witness to an Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999); Bob Zeller, The Civil War in Depth (New York: Chronicle Books, 1997); Robert Wilson, Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013); Roy Meredith, Mr. Lincolnâs Camera Man: Mathew B. Brady (New York: Scribner, 1946; Dover reprint, 1974); James W. Cook, The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Geoffrey Batchen, Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997); Martyn Jolly, Faces of the Living Dead: The Belief in Spirit Photography (London: British Library Board, 2006); ClĂ©ment ChĂ©roux et al., eds., The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004); Molly McGarry, Ghosts of Futures Past (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012); and Louis Kaplanâs collection of Mumler-related documents, The Strange Case of William Mumler (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008).
I am also indebted to other researchers on nineteenth-century Spiritualism, including Marc Demarest, whose blog Chasing Down Emma: Resolving the Contradictions of, and Filling in the Gaps in, the Life, Work and World of Emma Hardinge Britten (http://ehbritten.blogspot.com/) is a treasure trove of information about Spiritualists, their beliefs, and their communities. My work was also made much easier by the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (http://www.iapsop.com/), whose digitized collection of nineteenth-century newspapers served as a primary research portal for this book.
PROLOGUE
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1 âgray, begrimned,â âthe tomb of purity, order, peace, and lawâ: Junius Henri Browne, The Great Metropolis: a Mirror of New York (Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1869), 528.
2 âfraud,â âfelony,â âlarcenyâ: New York Tribune, May 4, 1869.
2 âThe Tombs has a historyâ: Browne, 530.
3 âHe belongs to the heavy order of the Spiritualistsâ: Emporia Weekly News (Kansas), May 14, 1869.
3 âathleticâ or ârobustâ: âSpirit Photographs: A New and Interesting Development,â Journal of the Photographic Society of London, January 15, 1863.
4 âhardened and degraded creaturesâ: Browne, 529.
6 âThe history of all pioneers of new truths is relatively the sameâ: William Mumler, âThe Personal Experiences of William Mumler in Spirit Photography, Part 1,â reprinted in Banner of Light 36, no. 15 (January 9, 1875), 1.
6 âevery fibre of his body rebelledâ: âTopics of Today,â Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1869.
6 âSpiritualism is the future churchâ: âSpiritualism,â Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1869.
7 âWhat is it youâve got to sayâ: New York Herald, April 13, 1869.
8 âThe intensity of the interestâ: âSpiritualism in Court,â New York Daily Tribune, April 24, 1869.
8 âThe case of the people against William H. Mumlerâ: Harperâs Weekly 13, no. 645 (May 4, 1869), 289.
8 âThe accused does not knowâ: âSpiritual Photography,â The Illustrated Photographer, May 28, 1869.
1. PROCURE THE REMEDY AT ONCE AND BE WELL
14 âA rather portly manâ: Earl Marble, âThe Round Table,â Folio, September 1884, 94.
14 âThose desirous of making purchasesâ: Edward Hepple Hall, Appletonsâ Hand-Book of American Travel (New York: D. Appelton & Co., 1869), 90.
14 âAlthough a self-made manâ: Annual Report of the Perkins School for the Blind (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1904).
15 âI had the reputationâ: Mumler, âThe Personal Experiences . . . Part 1,â 1.
15 âbeing the first to introduceâ: Reading (Pennsylvania) Times, May 13, 1869.
15 âI am an engraverâ: Mumler advertisement, 1860s, reproduced by Marc Demarest in Chasing Down Emma: Resolving the Contradictions of, and Filling in the Gaps in, the Life, Work and World of Emma Hardinge Britten, http://ehbritten.blogspot.com/2015_03_01_archive.html.
16 âFor the cause of suffering humanityâ: Ibid.
17 âAfter a man has passedâ: William Mumler, âThe Personal Experiences of William Mumler in Spirit Photography, Part 2,â reprinted in Banner of Light 36, no. 16 (January 16, 1875), 1.
17 âmagnetismâ: William Mumler, âThe Personal Experiences of William Mumler in Spirit Photography, Part 5,â reprinted in Banner of Light 36, no. 22 (February 27, 1875), 3.
18 A. M. Stuart: Henry Augustus Willis, The Fifty-Third Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers (Fitchburg, MA: Press of Blanchard & Brown, 1889), 247.
18 âHair braided to orderâ: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 30, 1848.
19 ânatural clairvoyantâ: Mumler, âThe Personal Experiences . . . Part 5,â 3.
19 âWhat is electricity?â: Ibid.
20 âI have seen men faintâ: Ibid.
2. LOVE AND PAINTING ARE QUARRELSOME COMPANIONS
24 âI can imagine mama wishingâ: Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Samuel F. B.Morse, His Letters and...