In the 1860s, "spirit photography" suddenly became very popular. Practitioners would use a special technique to create the appearance of spectral figures in people's homes and family photos...and people couldn't get enough of them!
One photographer, William Hope, took things up a notch by actually claiming to be a medium, and that his photos were "proof" of ghosts living among us. Sure, that sounds completely bogus now, but when you see them, you won't be so sure!
1. Is that a ghost's arm under this table
© William Hope
2. Hope claimed that he didn't remember this woman ever being in the room.
© William Hope
3. This might have been a lost daughter or relative.
© William Hope
4. Welsh medium Jake Thomas with his "grandmother's spirit" floating above him.
© William Hope
5. The man in this portrait can be seen with a long-deceased female colleague.
© William Hope
6. The fact that the unidentified male figure (or spirit) in this image is lopsided makes it so much creepier.
© William Hope
7. That spirit does not look happy to be here.
© William Hope
8. The spirit in this photo is the supposedly that man's second wife.
© William Hope
9. As if funerals weren't bad enough, a it looks like his spirit is hovering over the casket.
© William Hope
10. There's not one but TWO ghosts in this photo.
© William Hope
11. It's like her spirit is leaving her body.
© William Hope
12. Welsh medium Will Thomas, the brother of medium Jake Thomas, sits with a mysterious man's face floating above him.
© William Hope
13. It's like she's claiming the two men for the spirit world.
© William Hope
Yikes... No matter how many times I tell myself these aren't real, there's no denying that there's something super creepy about them!
Later, after World War I, it has revival, because of huge number of casualties and people (often parents) needing some consolation. This time the hoax was often intentional, because features of specific people (like fallen soldiers) were used, though sometimes in a good faith.