History of past photographers

The premise of spirit photography was that departed spirits could imprint their images on pictures. The spirits appeared as faint, ghostly images floating besides the living subjects.Spirit photography had enormous appeal during and after the Civil War as bereaved families sought some form of tangible proof that their loved ones lost during the war still continued their existence in some fashion.But spirit photography also attracted many critics, prominent among them P.T. Barnum, the famous showman. Barnum felt that the spirit photographers were taking advantage of those whose judgement was clouded by grief. Barnum made a point to prove that when William Mumler went of trial for fraud, that he was in fact using his knowledge of trying to realive grief from the depressed that his statement was, "I have never been in any humbug business where I did not give value for the money."

-Meagan