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

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.