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"item_title" : "The Apparitionists",
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"item_description" : "In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A spirit photographer, William Mumler, took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of lost loved ones alongside his living subjects. At a time when artists like Mathew Brady were remaking American culture with their cameras, Mumler was a sensation: the affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln.It took a circuslike trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge's stunning verdict suggested no one would ever solve the mystery of how Mumler did it. This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while grasping desperately for something to believe in.",
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The Apparitionists : A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost
Overview
In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer," William Mumler, took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of lost loved ones alongside his living subjects. At a time when artists like Mathew Brady were remaking American culture with their cameras, Mumler was a sensation: the affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln.
It took a circuslike trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge's stunning verdict suggested no one would ever solve the mystery of how Mumler did it. This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while grasping desperately for something to believe in.Customers Also Bought
Details
- ISBN-13: 9781328557063
- ISBN-10: 1328557065
- Publisher: Mariner Books
- Publish Date: October 2018
- Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.61 pounds
- Page Count: 352
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