Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal

42. Spirit Paintings

~ Chapter 42 Suirit Pai~ti_~ES " ~ During the heyday of spiritualism, among the "physical phenomena" commonly manifested were so-called spirit paintings. These were portraits and other artworks, done in various media and produced under a variety of conditions but always ascribed to spirit entities. During 1998 and 1999, I was able to examine several of these at Lily Dale, the western New York spiritualist colony, and to thereby shed light on some centuryold mysteries. Full-fledged spirit paintings, often portraits of the dearly departed, were typically rather elaborate renderings in oils or pastels. Although looking for all the world like artworks done by professionals, they were produced under remarkable conditions: for example, during a short period of time, in complete or near darkness, etc. The most famous spiritpainting mediums were the Bangs sisters (discussed in the next chapter) and the Campbell brothers (discussed in this chapter). Although there are myriad discussions ofspirit painting (e.g., Coates 1911; Carrington 1920; Mulholland 1938), I have come across no real history ofthe alleged phenomenon and nothing to establish its origin or chronicle its development. The following few paragraphs are my attempt to fill this void. Soon after modern spiritualism began in 1848 with the spirit rappings of the Fox sisters (who confessed their trickery four decades later), spirit pictures began to appear in a very simple form. The earliest ones ofwhich I am aware were drawings produced as an extension of"automatic" writing ' whereby messages were supposedly dictated by otherworldly entities or the medium's hand was allegedly guided by them. For example, in 260 "f' Real-Life X-Files 1851 John Murray Spear (b. 1804) produced seance writings and "also geometrical drawings and strange unintelligible figures, ofwhich no interpretation was vouchsafed" (Podmore 1902, 1:216). In the mid 1860s, a Glasgow cabinetmaker and spiritualist named David Duguid (18321907 ) began painting small landscapes while being observed, according to psychical investigator Frank Podmore (1902, II:130), "apparently in deep trance, and with his eyes apparently closed"-emphasis on the word apparently. Podmore (1902, II:13l) was "disposed to regard Duguid's trance utterances as probably not involving conscious deception," but his later mediumistic demonstrations are another matter. Magician John Mulholland in his Beware Familiar Spirits (1938, 158), says Duguid was among the mediums who employed "simple substitution of painted for unpainted cards:' After the debut of slate writing-a phenomenon claimed to have been "discovered" by Dr. Henry Slade-spirit drawings also began to appear, sometimes accompanying writing, sometimes separately. Like the messages, these drawings could be made with a simple slate pencil, but more ornate ones were rendered with colored chalks or paints. The slate effects were created under conditions that supposedly precluded trickery , thereby seeming to prove they were authentic spirit productions. In fact, however, they were easily produced by a variety of conjuring techniques , and mediums were repeatedly caught faking the phenomena (Houdini 1924). Although spirit painting is distinct from spirit photography, there was actually some overlap. Interestingly, early photographic techniquesdaguerreotypes , ambrotypes, etc.-did not yield spirit portraits; those awaited the advent of glass-plate negatives, which facilitated double exposures . After spirit photography became established in 1862 (by Bostonian William H. Mumler), painted portraits or other artworks obviously served on occasion as the basis for photographed spirit"extras:'13 Some mediumistic photographers produced photo images with artistically added "veils,""shrouds," and other funereal trappings (see examples in Permut 1988).And David Duguid expanded his repertoire from spirit paintings to spirit photographs and even "psychographs" (supposedly noncamera spirit or psychic photos) (Coates 1911,65). One way the latter were produced involved using seemingly unprepared paper that actually contained achemicallybleached-out image. At the appropriate time, Spirit Paintings the paper would be secretly pressed against a blotter dampened with a developing solution (Carrington 1920,220-21). At Lily Dale, I was able to examine several pictures by the Campbell brothers-or I should say, "brothers," since they were unrelated. (According to my sources at Lily Dale, they were a gay couple in a time when differences in sexual orientation were less tolerated.) They were Allan B. Campbell (1833-1919) and Charles "Campbell" (born Charles Shourds, who died August 23, 1926). They lived at Lily Dale but traveled widely, reportedly making twenty-two trips to Europe. Their mediumship involved slate writing and spirit typewriting (produced in a portable cabinet ), but they are best known for their spirit portraits and paintings ("Campbell...