But photo manipulation caused particularly hot debate in one field: “spirit photography.” Amid the spiritualism movement after the Civil War, many bereaved Americans became convinced they ...

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With his accidental creation of the world’s first haunted portrait, Mumler would inadvertently pioneer the field of spirit photography—and its attendant industry. Mumler was soon charging ...

And as these creepy vintage photos of spirit photography illustrate, the eerie movement provides a haunting look into the past. According to History, spirit photography began in the 1860s.

Spirit photography, a method that supposedly captured images of ghosts on film, emerged from a small Boston portrait studio in 1861 and immediately captured the attention of a national audience.

Or maybe it’s just the wrongness of the whole thing. But even knowing what we know about spirit photography today, there’s no denying that many ghost photos taken years, decades, or even ...