How to Photograph a Ghost, According to the Victorians
As the camera became available to a wider share of the public, spirit photographers found spooky ways to embrace this new technology.
In 1862, a jewelry engraver in Boston took a photograph of a ghost.
Like many Americans, William Mumler had developed an interest in photography, and improvements in cameras had made this technology accessible to a larger portion of the public. Mumler decided to take a self-portrait. All proceeded smoothly, until he developed the photo. To his shock, the pale image of his long-deceased cousin hovered beside him.
At least, that’s how Mumler recounted the story to the media. The truth involves some creativity, technological sleight of hand, and a public hungry for spectral visions of dead relatives.
Patrons of the Gazette may remember an essay in the archive about the Cottingley fairies, in which two English girls stunned the world with photos of flower fairies taken at the bottom of their garden. The photos, snapped in 1920, w…
