The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost

by Peter Manseau

Overview

A story of faith and fraud in post–Civil War America, told through the lens of a photographer who claimed he could capture images of the dead.

In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America’s imagination. A “spirit photographer,” William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation: The affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln, who arrived at his studio in disguise amidst rumors of séances in the White House.

Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge sided with the defense, suggesting no one would ever solve the mystery of his spirit photography. This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while clinging desperately to belief. 

An NPR Best Book of 2017

“A rare work of historical nonfiction that is both studious and just plain entertaining.”—Publishers Weekly, Top Ten Books of 2017

“An exceptional story.”—Errol Morris, New York Times Book Review

“Manseau has become the foremost chronicler of the deep American desire to believe in the weird, the strange, and the oddly wonderful.”—Jeff Sharlet, New York Times–bestselling author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544745988
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	06/11/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	357
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Peter Manseau is the author of books including One Nation Under Gods, Melancholy Accidents, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter, Vows, and Rag and Bone; he is also the co-author, with Jeff Sharlet, of Killing the Buddha. His writing appears regularly in publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a doctorate from Georgetown University, and is the Curator of American Religious History at the Smithsonian Institution.

Hometown:

Charlottesville, Virginia

Date of Birth:

November 15, 1974

Place of Birth:

Washington, D.C.

Education:

B.A., University of Massachusetts, 1996

Website:

http://www.PeterManseau.com

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Author's Note xiii

Prologue 1

Part I The Black Art

1 Procure the Remedy at Once and Be Well 13

2 Love and Painting Are Quarrelsome Companions 23

3 Ties Which Death Itself Could Not Loose 33

4 A Palace for the Sun 45

5 I Thought Nobody Would Be Damaged Much 53

6 A Lounging, Listless Madhouse 59

7 My God! Is It Possible? 69

8 She Really Is a Wonderful Whistler 81

9 No Shadow of Trickery 93

10 A Craving for Light 101

Part II Philosophical Instruments

11 The Message Department 113

12 A Big Head Full of Ideas 123

13 Chair and All 139

14 Did You Ever Dream of Some Lost Friend? 153

15 War Against Wrong 163

16 Whose Bones Lie Bleaching 171

Part III Humbugged

17 All Is Gone and Nothing Saved 183

18 A Favorite Haunt of Apparitions 197

19 The Spirits Do Not Like a Throng 209

20 The Tenderest Sympathies of Human Nature 215

21 Weep, Weep, My Eyes 223

22 Are You a Spiritualist in Any Degree? 235

23 An Old, Moth-Eaten Cloak 243

24 By Supernatural Means 251

25 Figura Vaporosa 259

26 They Paid Their Money, and They Had Their Choice 277

27 Those Mortals Gifted with the Power of Seeing 283

Part IV Image and Afterlife

28 Calm assurance of a Happy Future 295

29 The Mumler Process 305

Acknowledgments 311

Notes and Sources 313

Editorial Reviews

In The Apparitionists, Peter Manseau takes us on an expedition through the beginnings of photography and its deceptions…Manseau has created an exceptional story of how photography intersects with the hope that some heretofore unexplored scientific process will reveal something about the nature of man and our limitations. It is one of the persistent myths of mankind that death isn't final—that photography, which transcends time and space, can show a way around death.

The New York Times Book Review - Errol Morris

★ 07/17/2017
The “spirit photographs” of William H. Mumler (1832–1884) serve as a touchstone for reflections on photography and its impact on public perceptions of reality in this meticulously researched study of America’s dalliance with spiritualism in the 19th century. Trained as an engraver, Mumler began dabbling in photography in 1862, and the portraits he produced of ghostly loved ones hovering near mortal sitters captivated a culture obsessed with intimations of the afterlife. His best-known photo shows Mary Todd Lincoln being caressed by the ghostly hands of her husband six years after his assassination. Although accused of doctoring his photos and prosecuted for fraud in 1869 in a widely publicized trial, Mumler was acquitted for lack of proof and he eventually earned respect for developing the process by which photos could be directly transferred to newsprint. Manseau (Rag and Bone) provides comprehensive context for his chronicle of Mumler, placing him at the intersection of the Spiritualist movement and the rise of the photographic art, and in the context of the Civil War, which acquainted Americans with death on an unprecedented scale (and which yielded iconic photos by Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner that were themselves sometimes manipulated for effect). Ultimately, as the author eloquently puts it, Mumler’s trial was as much about “the very nature of the soul and the religious commitments of the country” as it was about a huckster exploiting (and providing reassurance to) the gullible. 29 b&w photos. Agent: Kathleen Anderson, Anderson Literary Management. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Apparitionists A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of 2017   "In The Apparitionists, Peter Manseau takes us on an expedition through the beginnings of photography and its deceptions... Manseau has created an exceptional story of how photography intersects with the hope that some heretofore unexplored scientific process will reveal something about the nature of man and our limitations."—Errol Morris, The New York Times Book Review   "A sensitive, insightful history."—The New Yorker   "Mr. Manseau develops these threads so that The Apparitionists itself is like a photograph—each successive chapter adding depth and shade and specks of mystery, until the final result magically appears, provoking as many questions as it provides answers."—Wall Street Journal   “Given that the path loops through the Civil War, the telegraph, P.T. Barnum, spiritualism and a trained seal, it's impressive that The Apparitionists is as brisk a read as it is. The tone is knowledgeable, but the touch is light; technology is deftly explained, figures who have been gone too long are always briefly reintroduced, and Manseau is happy to reassure you you're reading a history. (Of two warring photographers, he notes that, unfortunately, ‘Mortal partnerships are always only temporary.’)”—NPR   "The Apparitionists is breezy, clever, and exuberant."—Harper’s Magazine  "Wide-ranging and thought-provoking... In our age of digital manipulation, it is more important than ever to scrutinize every photograph, whether or not they contain ghosts."—San Francisco Chronicle “Written like a novel but researched with academic rigor, this account of a photographer whose work seemed to incorporate images from the spirit realm stops short of either endorsing the veracity of the photographer's claim or debunking his work as a scam...A well-paced nonfiction work that reads more like a historical novel than an academic study..” —Kirkus “In this meticulously researched study of America’s dalliance with spiritualism in the 19th century...Manseau provides comprehensive context for his chronicle of Mumler, placing him at the intersection of the Spiritualist movement and the rise of the photographic art, and in the context of the Civil War, which acquainted Americans with death on an unprecedented scale.—Publishers Weekly, starred review “More than just a fraud, William Mumler was a pioneer in the new art of photography—a striking technology that not only offered new levels of immediacy but also immediately offered itself up to manipulation, provoking questions of authenticity even as its uncanny effects offered a tantalizing vision of the unknown. He was a huckster, but like all successful hucksters, he was a perfect reflection of his time. Peter Manseau's The Apparitionists recreates Mumler's life with a scholar's poise and a storyteller's grace, offering an enduring portrait of the nineteenth century through one of its most unlikely figures.” —Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places “Manseau has become the foremost chronicler of the deep American desire to believe in the weird, the strange, and oddly wonderful. His l —

From the Publisher

09/15/2017
In 1869, "spirit photographer" William Mumler was charged with fraud for producing photographs allegedly containing phantoms of the deceased. Widely covered in the daily papers, the case was described by Harper's Weekly as "remarkable and without precedent in the annals of criminal jurisprudence." In the aftermath of the Civil War, the nation was exploding with interest in making contact with lost loved ones. According to Smithsonian curator Manseau (Songs for the Butcher's Daughter), "It was a time when rapidly increasing scientific knowledge was regarded not as the enemy of supernatural obsessions, but an encouragement to them…. Now came Mumler and his camera offering sight beyond sight." After Mumler was acquitted, he made the defining picture of his career in 1872, capturing Mary Todd Lincoln with the spirit image of husband Abraham Lincoln. VERDICT For enthusiasts and experts alike of photography history and post-Civil War American history. Those interested in the fringes of Lincoln-related books will want to make room on the shelf for this work.—John Muller, Washington, DC, P.L.

Library Journal

2017-08-07
The tale of a provocative controversy and court trial from the formative era of photography.Written like a novel but researched with academic rigor, this account of a photographer whose work seemed to incorporate images from the spirit realm stops short of either endorsing the veracity of the photographer's claim or debunking his work as a scam. What Manseau (One Nation, Under Gods: A New American History, 2015), the curator of American Religious History at the Smithsonian, demonstrates is that William Mumler (1832-1884) was perhaps as mystified as his skeptics in his emergence as a "spirit photographer" whose photographs of a living subject might show a deceased relation hovering somewhere in the print. Court transcripts show that Mumler's subjects mostly believed in the legitimacy of the apparitions in his work and that none of the photographers who attempted to expose his trickery were able to do so. Yet the narrative is less an argument in favor of a miracle than an evocation of an era "shaped by war, belief, new technology, and a longing for connections across ever greater distances—a time not unlike our own." It was a time when the telegraph offered instantaneous communication across oceans and "transformed nearly every aspect of American life, and perhaps none more so than the press." It was also a time when electricity demonstrated the very real power of things unseen. If communication could become instantaneous across thousands of miles, why couldn't the emerging field of photography close the distance between the living and the dead? For this was also an era, even before the Civil War, when the country "was suffering a spiritual hangover," in which spiritualism and mediums who claimed to communicate with the dead were perceived as a threat to conventional Christianity. Thus the trial not only focused on the possibilities and limits of the emerging photographic technology, but on whether it was possible to reconcile such apparitions with the Bible. A well-paced nonfiction work that reads more like a historical novel than an academic study.

Kirkus Reviews