[Scrapbook on the 1869 Mumler spirit photography fraud trial]

[Scrapbook on the 1869 Mumler spirit photography fraud trial]

Year: 1869

Folio (37 x 23 cm). pp. 20. Marbled boards and calf, spine perished and boards broken. The volume consists primarily of newspaper accounts pasted onto account sheets as well as numerous marginal annotations. This record of popular and detailed press clippings was almost certainly compiled by someone close to or involved in the trial, possibly even preparing a cross examination. The volume bears the stamps Association of the Bar of the City of New York (since deaccessioned), which was founded in 1870 and counted some of the country's most prominent lawyers among its members, including those involved in the 1869 Mumler trial. William H. Mumler (1832-1884) was an American spirit photographer who worked in New York and Boston. His doctored photos took advantage of the large number of people who had lost relatives in the Civil War. One of the most famous of his images was the photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband Abraham Lincoln. As accusations piled up against him, he relocated to NYC where he was quickly arrested on charges of fraud. A sensationalist trial ensued, and became fodder for the papers, given the intersection of people's religious and spiritual belie