P.T. Barnum Exposes the Tricks
Mumler’s trial exposed the inner workings of photo manipulation. The fraud issue might have resolved as people were recognizing ‘spirits’ as other people alive and well and walking among them. Even infamous showman P.T. Barnum got in on the act. Barnum was horrified that spirit photographers such as Mumler were taking advantage of grieving families. He requested photographer Abraham Bogardus take a picture of him with the long-deceased Abraham Lincoln.
Bogardus used that image at the Mumler trials in an effort to show the trickery of spirit photography. Barnum, as someone who featured skilled magicians in his shows, was brought in as a witness against Mumler’s practices. Barnum had no love for Mumler’s methods, offering a snarky observation that Mumler’s ghosts “were awfully fashionably dressed for having been dead so long.”
