Spirit Photography

During the Victorian Era a new movement began in Hydesville, NY...the Spiritualist Movement.  With the onset of this movement the new concept of Spirit Photography was created.  Jen Cadwallader discusses this concept at length in her article "Spirit Photography Victorian Culture of Mourning".  
Photography already held a very important role in the mourning artifacts with the popularity of images of the deceased. (I will discuss this tradition more in later blog post.)
William Mumler produced the first photograph with "extras" in Boston in 1861.  He was both extending the tradition of the post mortem photograph and cashing in on the growing popularity of the Spiritualist Movement, which was concerned with producing physical evidence of life after death.  His "extras" were rightly named - appearing in addition to the person actually being photographed and costing quite a bit extra compared to a normal portrait. 
Cadwallader finds that spirit photography is a reflection on the act and value of mourning itself.  It shows the feelings of the mourner.  In a society where mourning was highly visible in dress, but where grief was all but taboo, the spirit photograph provided a space to gain conceptual control over one's feelings. (pg. 16).

Figure 1. William H. Mumler "Mrs. French of Boston with her son's spirit." ca. 1870 Wm. B. Becker Collection, American Museum of Photography

Figure 2. Frederick Hudson "Lady Helena Newenham and the Spirit of her Daughter," ca. 1872 Wm. B. Becker Collection, American Museum of Photography