Sale 2489 - Artists & Amateurs: Photographs & Photobooks, October 18, 2018

321 c   (SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY) A suite of 8 photographs featuring the spirits of historically important figures, as summoned during a séance, and photographed by Dr. William Keeler. With images including the ghoulishly f loating spirits of Mary Todd Lincoln, Moses, Robert Burns, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Cockburn, among others. Silver prints, 5 printed on postcard paper, the images measuring 5 1 / 2 x3 3 / 4 inches (14x9.5 cm.), and slightly smaller, 5 with notations on verso identifying some of the spirits, and 2 identifying a sitter (Aidan R. Coburn), one with the photographer’s credit, and one with the date, in ink, on verso. Circa 1909   [3,000/4,500] Dr. William Keeler was a Washington D.C. based spirit photographer, and brother to the well- known Spiritualist Medium Pierre L. O. A. Keeler. In addition to studio sittings, for just $3 Keeler also offered a mail-order spirit photo service. Interested parties were requested to send a photo of themselves after keeping it on their person for two days (so as to increase “personal magnetism”). In return they would receive two photographs connecting them with “those gone before.” Results were not guaranteed. However, testaments to Keeler’s practice were published in 1906 and 1915. 322 c   (SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY) Group of 3 spirit photographs, including one featuring the spiritual presence of the former First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln. With the remaining two photographs depicting a woman connecting with her apparently deceased husband, the pair portrayed within f loating f lowers in the shape of a heart. Silver prints, the images measuring approximately 7x5 inches (17.8x12.7 cm.), one with Lincoln’s name, in pencil, on verso. Circa 1910   [1,200/1,800] 321 322