A Curious 1920’s Spirit Photograph
I came across a curious photograph today from The National Media Museum in Bradford (UK).
The National Media Museum in Bradford has become the first UK institution to make sections of the internationally renowned National Photography Collection available to millions worldwide through online photo management and sharing application Flickr.
One of the photo collections that they’ve posted is a number of ‘Spirit Photos’.
The photo that really caught my interest is this one, which is apparently from the 1920’s (according to the museum’s press release).
At Flickr they’ve given the following caption:
“Mrs Bentley and the spirit of her deceased sister A photograph of Mrs Bentley, once the President of the British Spiritualists Lyceum Union.. A superimposed image - that of Mrs Bentley’s deceased sister’s face - appears at the lower right of the photograph.”
Photo courtesy of: Collection of National Media Museum.
So, I decided out of curiousity to look up Mrs Bentley and the British Spiritualists Lyceum Union. I found out on the Spiritualists’ National Union website (SNU), that The British Spiritualists’ Lyceum Union was founded in 1890. In 1948 it was incorporated as a Branch of the SNU. While I was there I checked out their history and couldn’t find any reference to the mysterious Mrs Bentley.
In fact, I can’t find reference to her connection to the British Spiritualists Lyceum Union or anything else for that matter anywhere. Perhaps I’ll come up with something yet; but so far, Mrs Bentley, this photograph of her and her connections to Spiritualists and Spiritualism is a curious mystery to me.
Update: I’ve just found out something that I missed on the first look at the photos. This photo and the other ones that are uploaded to Flickr were taken by a controversial medium called/named William Hope (1863-1933). So, there’s another lead for me to follow.
