In 1923, Harry Houdini And Arthur Conan Doyle Feuded Over Spirit Photography And Went On Rivaling Lecture Tours To Drive Home Their Beliefs About The Spiritualism Movement
Between 1923 and 1924, the famous Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle sold out theatres and toured throughout the United States– often both visiting the same city within mere days of each other.
Rather than Harry mystifying crowds with his magic or Arthur wowing fans with stories of Sherlock Holmes, though, both men did the unexpected. They delivered lectures about communicating with the dead.
During the 1840s in New York, the Spiritualism religious movement began and was largely based on the belief that those still living could commune with the deceased. The movement only picked up steam throughout the coming decades and reached a height of popularity during the 1920s.
The 1920s were a time of turmoil and catastrophe since almost eight hundred thousand people died during the Great War and the 1918 pandemic. So, Spiritualism provided solace, and millions of followers leaned into it.
Interestingly, though, Arthur and Harry could not have had more different views on the movement. And in their lectures, they made sure to detail their opposing perspectives on everything from mediums and seances to Ouija boards and spirit photography.
Arthur was reportedly a fervent believer in Spiritualism, with his interest being driven by his roots in science and medicine.
“He genuinely believes that there were energies and aspects of nature that we still did not understand. And, of course, that’s science, right?” explained Eric Colleary, curator of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, where Arthur’s work is archived.
Harry Houdini, on the other hand, was a vocal skeptic of Spiritualism, and for thirty years, the magician made it his mission to debunk the movement’s beliefs.
“He believed it was the responsibility of the magician to make it clear to the public that this was not magic. This was all tricks of the eye. This was misdirection. This was an illusion,” detailed Amanda Zimmerman, one of the Library of Congress’ reference librarians.
Fly_dragonfly – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Despite their starkly opposing stances on Spiritualism, though, Arthur and Harry were actually quite close friends. Their archives revealed that both men often exchanged letters, articles, and books– most often in an attempt to back their own perspectives on Spiritualism and persuade the other to follow suit.
Perhaps most interestingly, though, is that both men collected vast amounts of so-called spirit photography.
These seemingly haunted pictures appeared to capture entities– “spirits”– that were unable to be seen by the human eye.
Much of the time, these figures took on one of two forms. They were either concealed and inexplicable or distinctly recognizable as historical figures or family members.
And depending on if you sided with Arthur’s or Harry’s views on Spiritualism, the same photographs still served as visual evidence to support either belief.
Supporters of Spiritualism cited the photographs as proof of the spirit world; meanwhile, naysayers pointed to the photographs as examples of photographic tricks and deceit.
Harry’s collection is also home to one of the most shocking pieces of spirit photography– an image of the magician seated next to Abraham Lincoln. Harry created the photo around 1925 in hopes of proving that spirit photography was fraudulent.
He specifically picked Abraham Lincoln as his photo subject since, during that time, it was common for mediums to claim that they saw well-known figures like Lincoln. This particularly angered Harry, who had been both a fan of the former president and friends with Lincoln’s son.
“In an effort to make sure that Robert Todd would not be taken in by these dupes, these fraudsters, [Harry] created his own double-exposure image of himself supposedly conversing with Lincoln,” explained Zimmerman.
“Then, he sent that photo, along with a very detailed scientific explanation of the double-exposure process to Robert Todd Lincoln, so he would not be taken in by anyone offering him this kind of connection to his murdered dad.”
Still, spirit photography provided Americans of the 1920s and 1930s an unmatched sense of peace. And the artistic medium was so new that people did not understand why photographs wouldn’t be able to show “the unseen.”
“The whole concept was so new. Why couldn’t [photography] show psychic energies that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye? Think about X-rays, which were also new. You could see a person’s bones without cutting into them. So, why not spirit photography?” said Colleary.
So, Arthur continued working to promote spirit photography while Harry remained committed to debunking the practice. And even after their death, their opposing lecture tours continued to shape the public’s perception of spirit photography and the Spiritualism movement as a whole.
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