Is it really possible to photograph a ghost?
Through much of the 19th century, the new art of photography inspired a generation of photographers on both sides of the Atlantic to experiment on different ways to improve the long exposure time and the quality of the images they produced. Which is presumably what first inspired William Mumler, later known as the dean of spirit photographers, to produce the first of the many spirit photographs he took during his career.
After sharing his discovery with some Boston spiritualists, they immediately asked Mumler to take photographs of them as well. Out of the twenty or more photographs that Mumler took, a few of them did show additional images which more than a few of the Spiritualists identified as deceased acquaintances or family members. The images were typically much fainter than what Mumler got with his live models and, even for those volunteers who sat for more than one picture, the ghostly images being shown were rarely the same.
For many of the people taking part, Mumler's photographs were a revelation. Learning that close family members they had believed gone forever were actually hovering around in ghostly form reaffirmed everything they believed about Spiritualism. They also scoffed at the suggestion that any trickery was involved. As one of Mumler's supporters, Dr. Ammi Brown, told reporters, he had examined Mumler's apparatus and found no sign of faking. He also added that, "if these pictures, claimed to be the pictures of spirits, be a swindle or a sleight-of-hand deception, the operation beats the ingenuity of all the necromancers and prestidigitateurs(sic) of the present and the past.
Answering accusations that the ghostly images were actually double-exposures on old photographic plates, Mumler invited skeptics to supply their own plates to be used in his experiments and, sure enough, ghostly images still appeared in the developed plates. While other photographers showed that they could reproduce the ghostly effect using two negatives and printing them onto the same photograph, nobody could explain how Mumler was able to do the same with a single plate.
Certainly, the pictures themselves were extremely memorable. One of Mumler's photographs was of a man named Luther Parks but there was also the fainter image of a beautiful female spirit, apparently about to place a wreath of flowers on his head. In another photograph, a woman, identified only as "Mrs. Snow", could be seen along with the ghostly image of her dead brother who was holding a musical instrument in his hand (he had been an instrument-maker during his life). One of the other photographs was of a man, "Mr. Taylor", whose child had died recently. He apparently wanted to see this child sitting on his hand (which he held out while the photograph was taken). Sure, enough, the photograph that Mumler developed had a ghostly image of the child just as the father had requested.
But, it wasn't just family members who appeared in these photographs. In one picture of a "well-known citizen of Boston", the unmistakable image of recently-deceased statesman Daniel Webster could be seen alongside him. Other ghostly images weren't as easily to identify, however, though most of the people photographed were convinced that the images in their pictures were of deceased family members.
All of which still raised the question of how Mumler was taking these amazing photographs. Certainly no other photographers in Boston were getting similar results though they used essentially the same equipment. One reporter writing about Mumler even supplied his own photographic plate and carefully watched Mumler as he took the picture and developed it afterward. Sure enough, the result was another spirit photograph. As the reporter concluded in his story, "the modus operandi of producing these spirit pictures is a mystery...how it is made, neither deception investigation or philosophy can answer."
And Mumler wasn't the only member of his family who dabbled in the supernatural . His wife, Hannah, was a spiritual medium who provided her own services, including spiritual healing for willing customers. Through her channeling the famous physician Benjamin Rush, Hannah dispensed various patent remedies including, "Mesmerine of the blood" which was a cure for "displacing the many different diseases that flesh is heir to." That the spectral image of Rush often appeared in photographs of Hannah (all taken by her husband) helped bolster her own psychic claims.
By early 1863, the word about Mumler's photographs had spread among photographers on both sides of the Atlantic. One story about Mumler which came out in the Photographic News, (a London-based popular journal for photographers). Describing the"considerable interest" they had over the photographs, the edictors still remained cautious about the possibility of fraud. Though Mumler certainly had numerous prominent defenders, the American Photographic Society soon declared that the "spirit likenesses are a fraud and gross deception" and their British counterparts wholeheartedly agreed. And then there were prominent skeptics such as P.T. Barnum who also insisted that Mumler's claims were "pure hokum". Barnum even devoted an entire chapter to Mumler in his 1866 book, Humbugs of the World.
But Mumler's photography business continued to thrive and he soon moved to New York city where even more prominent photography experts soon concluded that they could find no fraud. It likely helped that the United States was embroiled in a horrific civil war at the time with thousands of casualties and grieving relatives desperate for some proof of an afterlife. Given the enormous market for spirit photographs spawned by the war, it is any wonder that people were willing to suspend disbelief? Or that other photographers, recognizing that Mumler was onto a good thing, began to produce their own spirit photographs? Not that this cut into Mumler's business, or stopped him from charging fees for photographs that were far higher than any of his non-spiritual competitors.
It was too good to last, however. Acting on stories about Mumler's photographs, New York major A. Oakley Hall ordered an investigation. His chief marshal, Joseph Tooker, visited Mumler under a fake name and had his photograph taken. What appeared was Tooker and what Mumler insisted was his deceased father-in-law. After examining the picture closely, Tooker concluded that the picture "failed to represent anyone he had ever seen or known" and promptly arrested Mumler for fraud and "cheating the public."
On April 12, 1869, Mumler appeared in court before Judge Joseph Dowling on two counts of fraud and one of mischievous larceny. According to the prosecutor, Mumler had defrauded his customers "through trick and device and by false pretence, in furnishing certain … cards said to have been produced by spiritual and supernatural agency, but which were in fact the result of ordinary scientific and chemical means, in common use by persons engaged in the photographic art.” The sticking point for the prosecutor's case was whether Mumler had knowingly committed fraud (though he was certainly guilty of price inflation). It soon became apparent that Spiritualism itself was on trial with believers and skeptics both giving testimony.
But it was Mumler's photographs that would get the most attention. As the first criminal trial in which "spirit photographs" were introduced as evidence, photography experts weighed in on how Mumler had produced them and whether he could have genuinely believed that he was photographing ghosts. More than twenty-two photographs would be examined over the course of the three-week trial.
It's hard to point out specific high points of the trial but calling P.T. Barnum as an expert for the prosecution was certainly one of them. An accomplished showman, Barnum knew how to play to the audience (even in a courtroom) when he insisted that Mumler's photographs were "pure hokum". He also drily pointed out that none of Mumler's customers seemed at all curious at how ghosts could be dressed in the clothes they had worn on earth. And, interestingly enough, these clothes seemed to match the latest fashions quite well. He also talked about his own previous experiences with Mumler and how easily such photographs could be faked.
Given how entertaining Barnum's testimony was and the impact it was having on the jury (and the newspapers), Mumler's defense counsel tried to rattle the witness by asking him how long he had been in the humbug business. When Barnum fielded that question ably, he was then questioned about his own various hoaxes, including the Fiji Mermaid and Joyce Heth. None of this worked and Barnum stepped down from the witness stand in triumph.
After all the evidence was heard, the prosecutor and defense counsel both gave extensive closing arguments that covered all of the complex issues that had arisen over the trial. Whether or not Mumler was guilty of fraud seemed almost secondary to questions about Spiritualism, freedom of religion, the comfort that Mumler's photographs brought to his bereaved customers, and the distinction between belief and truth. Finally, after weighing all of the deliberations, Judge Dowling concluded that “However I may be morally convinced that there may have been trick and deception practiced by the prisoner, yet as I sit as a Magistrate to determine from the evidence given by the witnesses, according to law, I am compelled to decide that I would not be justified in sending this complaint to the Grand 
Though he resumed his photography career, Mumler was still being called a "swindler" by most newspapers. He had already relocated his business to Boston and it would be there that he would live the rest of his life. Deeply in debt, Mumler had little hope of paying off his creditors considering that the demand for his spirit photographs was almost non-existent. Though spirit photography would be a booming business in decades to come, the stigma over Mumler's name meant that he couldn't be part of it. Even his existing photographs, which had once sold at exorbitant prices, could now be had for twenty-five cents each. Almost all of his income came from ordinary photography as well as being an amateur inventor who came up with a new process for creating photo-electrotype plates (still known
as the Mumler process).
But he still did some spirit photographs. One of his customers during his twilight years was Mary Todd Lincoln, widow of the martyred president (though she gave her name as "Mrs. Lindall"). Since the ghostly image bears little resemblance to her late husband, "Mrs. Lindall" needed some prompting by Hannah Mumler before saying that it was him in the picture. Still, the publicity over the alleged ghostly picture of Abraham Lincoln helped revive his career to some extent and other people came to him as well.
Finally, it all came to an end for William H. Mumler when he died in May, 1884. Though his official obituary makes little mention of his spirit photographs and simply referred to him as a photographer and inventor, his spirit photographs continued to be widely distributed by Spiritualists even though most modern photography experts have long-since debunked them as fakes.
So, was Mumler a fraud or did he genuinely believe that he was photographing ghosts? You be the judge.
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