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In the early 1860s, spirit photography was a significant advance in grieving rituals.
Spirit photography is a type of portrait that visually reunites the bereaved with the wispy reappearance of their loved ones. Some people saw these photos as proof in support of fundamental “spiritualist” ideas. Spiritualists believed that the soul lives on after death and that there is the possibility of continuous relationships and contact between the dead and the living.
Mediums, mostly women, collaborated with spirit photographers to facilitate the “spiritual” return of the deceased. My research indicates that women were key players in this evolution, and I identify a woman as the likely founder of spirit photography.
aimed at women
The advent of spirit photography in Boston was a thrilling and widely known event that continues to captivate. today’s folks
Spirit photos are sometimes viewed as funny historical artefacts by modern viewers. Some Victorian audiences were also used to the use of translucence in images intended for entertainment or popular storytelling. Some people, for example, gathered and shared photographs taken by cameras that produced different viewpoints of the same scene in order to create the appearance of three dimensions. Nonetheless, these things held value as personal mementos for the grieving who commissioned spirit images.
Spirit images, when seen by compassionate eyes, were proof of unending love. Nonetheless, they drew a lot of criticism, even from some spiritualist communities.
Fraud allegations
William H. Mumler, widely regarded as the father of spirit photography, was charged with “obtaining money through pretended’spirit’ images.” Following a lengthy and Mumler was acquitted of all allegations after a public pre-trial and continued his work.
During Mumler’s preliminary hearing, the press identified “Mrs. Stuart” as the woman who ran the studios where Mumler’s initial spirit images were created. Stuart never showed up in court. Unlike many subsequent spirit photographers, Mumler and his collaborator, Stuart, never had their methodology verified.
Hair adornment commemorative
Hannah Frances Green was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1832, and married Thomas Miller Turner 20 years later, with whom she had two children. Green and the children were abandoned by 1859, according to divorce records.
Green was adjusting to life as a single mother of two when Mrs. A. M. Stuart was listed as an artist in hair at 191 Washington St. in Boston directories. in the same address, as well as a “hair work manufacturer.” The Victorian art of weaving hair into art, jewellery, or decorations for commemorative purposes was known as hair work manufacturing. The following year, she lists herself as a hair stylist once more.
Mrs. H.F. Stuart is listed as a hair jewellery producer at 221 Washington St. in 1861. By 1862, H.F. Stuart had expanded to open professional photography facilities at 258 Washington St., the address of the first spirit photograph. The mark on the back of her many commissioned carte-de-visite photographs attests to her continuous manufacture of hair jewellery.
Helen F. Stuart’s business entries place her between the years 1859 and 1867, however I was unable to find any census information for her. There are no documented birth, death, or marriage records. This name is related with marriage records.
‘Magnetic abilities’
Mumler claimed in a court declaration following his inquiry and indictment in 1869 that he was alone when he took his first spirit photograph. He stated that he was simply relying on what he had deduced from watching an unnamed male acquaintance, yet there are no other references to this guy.
Mumler, the engraver, and Stuart, the jeweller, are both mentioned at 221 Washington St. in Boston in 1861.
Mumler’s “male acquaintance” was most likely made up to conceal the fact that he sought advice from a woman (Stuart). Perhaps he avoided explicitly revealing Hannah Green’s presence because she was still married to Turner. Perhaps he wanted to keep her and the kids out of the spotlight as the four relocated to New York City. Mumler and Green married in 1864, months after her divorce from Turner was formalised, according to official records.
Professional with exceptional abilities
Hannah Green’s ability to survive as a professional with outstanding self-promotion skills is proven long after she divorced her second husband, William Mumler, in the late 1870s – and after his death in 1884.
Mediumship, as it was understood in the Victorian era, implied a certain amount of passivity, which is why women were seen to be better suited to the role. Photography, on the other hand, became increasingly connected with men’s work and scientific technique in the later half of the nineteenth century. It would have been impossible for a woman to claim to be the creator of spirit photography.
Green enlisted the help of a man with comparable skills in order to bring her vision and business forward.
When we study Green’s contribution to spirit photography, we are led to reconsider how women’s roles were disregarded at a critical juncture in photographic history — and to rediscover spirit photography as an innovation within personal grieving rituals.
