Artful Mediums: Women, Séance Photography, and Materialization Phenomena, 1880-1930

This dissertation examines the photographic documentation of the spiritualist movement that took place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In an attempt to scrutinize and expose the claims of mediums, a number of leading scientists brought cameras into the séance in order to capture supernatural phenomena on film. The ensuing chapters explore the images that resulted from some of these experiments, with an emphasis on the documentation of several prominent female mediums, including Eva C., Eusapia Palladino, and Linda Gazzera. The investigations of Drs. Albert von Schrenck Notzing, Camille Flammarion, Gustave Geley, and Charles Richet inform the bulk of these pages. Scientific séance photography ultimately documented a wide range of "materialization phenomena" within the darkened conditions of the séance, consisting of ectoplasmic materials, ghostly faces, and spectral body parts, which appeared to emanate from the medium's body and then dissolve into nothingness. My project hinges on the premise that these mysterious apparitions were symbolic creations, much like artworks, which carried implicit cultural and aesthetic meaning. I have sought through the ensuing analysis to examine the frameworks of meaning that surrounded the art of the séance, and to situate the medium as an artist within her own right.Ph.D