Harry Houdini’s Spiritualism Scrapbooks: A Glimpse into the Popular Occulture of the 1920s
The famous magician Harry Houdini was a leading spirit and psychic investigator during the 1920s. His most famous published work on the...
top of page
eframss
- Dec 19, 2022
- 6 min
Tis the Season to be Spooky: Revisiting Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought I would write a short festive entry about ghosts and Christmas. Are there any better...
15 views0 comments
eframss
- Dec 7, 2022
- 3 min
Remembering Pepper’s Ghost: Victorian Magic’s Greatest Illusion
When modern spiritualism first arrived on British shores in 1852 with the American medium Maria B. Hayden, it created a sensation. It was...
42 views0 comments
eframss
- Oct 24, 2022
- 4 min
Spiritualism and the Birth of Radio
There is a long history of spiritualists using new kinds of technologies to enhance their abilities to communicate with entities beyond...
174 views0 comments
eframss
- Sep 15, 2022
- 3 min
Ectoplasm, Levitation, and Imposture: The Story of Kathleen Goligher
Not so long ago I wrote a short Twitter thread about the early twentieth-century Irish medium Kathleen Goligher. There has been a lot of...
23 views0 comments
eframss
- Sep 5, 2022
- 4 min
The Amazing Davenport Brothers & A Question of Doubt
Among academics, Ira Erastus (1839-1911) and William Henry Davenport (1841-1877) are two of the most renowned (or infamous) mediums of...
71 views0 comments
eframss
- Jul 25, 2022
- 3 min
The First Society for Psychical Research: Lady Conway’s investigation of the Faith Healer Valentine
We often think of mediumship as a nineteenth-century phenomena. Usually, spiritualists attribute the origins of their movement to the Fox...
101 views0 comments
eframss
- May 23, 2022
- 6 min
The Case of the Crawley Poltergeist
What does this World War 2 Morrison shelter have to do with paranormal investigations? Answer: it marks the beginning of a fascinating...
3,125 views0 comments
eframss
- Apr 27, 2022
- 3 min
Lottie Fowler: The Forgotten American Medium
Although she is relatively unkown today, during the second half of the nineteenth century, Lottie Fowler (née Charlotte Connelly) was one...
52 views0 comments
eframss
- Apr 4, 2022
- 5 min
The Transit of Mrs. Guppy – A Teleporting Medium
SOURCE Spirit photograph of Mrs. Tebb (left), Georgiana Houghton (middle), Agnes Guppy-Volckman (right) circa the early 1870s. Elisabeth...
141 views0 comments
eframss
- Mar 3, 2022
- 3 min
The Many Ghosts of Dragsholm Castle, Denmark
Since moving to Denmark I’ve naturally become interested in its paranormal history. While I could easily write a full-length book on the...
200 views0 comments
eframss
- Feb 21, 2022
- 4 min
William H. Mumler: The World’s First Spirit Photographer
One of the most famous spirit images ever to be captured in a photograph was produced by the American photographer William H. Mumler...
261 views0 comments
eframss
- Feb 10, 2022
- 34 min
What's in a Letter? Reflections of a Transcription Editor
Several years ago I wrote this article with the intention of publishing it in a journal. For various reasons, however, other projects...
24 views0 comments
eframss
- Feb 8, 2022
- 3 min
The Magical Amulets of Edward Lovett
Recently, while digging through some material on the disciplinary origins of folklore studies, I came across this map, which was drawn by...
75 views0 comments
eframss
- Feb 1, 2022
- 4 min
The Real John Dee and Edward Kelley from A Discovery of Witches
John Dee and Edward Kelley are two real historical figures in the main storyline for season 2 of A Discovery of Witches. But who were Dee...
470 views0 comments
bottom of page