Here are some of the finest fake photographs of spirits, taken by the controversial medium William Hope (1863-1933). They were discovered in a Lancashire antiquarian bookshop by a curator of the National Media Museum.

At the very beginning of the 20th century, and after capturing the supposed image of a ghost while he was photographing a friend, carpenter William Hope became interested in spirit photography and founded the Crewe Circle. When archbishop Thomas Colley joined the group, the spirit photographers started to publicise their work.

As the grieving relatives of those lost to the Great War sought ways of contacting their loved ones, the Crew Circle became quite succesful and by 1922, Hope moved to London and started a professional medium business.

The Society for Psychical Research sent Harry Price to investigate the work of the Crew Circle, and he  collected evidence that William Hope produced his spirit photographs with a little help from some glass plates and the spooky images on it. Price exposed Hope as a fraudster, but many of his supporters defended him fiercely. Among the most famous was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the spiritual father of Sherlock Holmes and an ardent spiritist.

All photographs are taken from the Flickr National Media Museum Set The spirit photographs of William Hope.

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Couple with a Young Female Ghost. Besides comments upon grandparents having “double exposed photo’s like this done accidentally” (easy with these old roll camera’s), there also is an interesting remark by Diana Topan here, on the Price/Hope controversy and about “the way their surnames really fit both their roles in it”. Price undoubtedly had some arguments to debunk the shots, but he was also “implicitly underlining Hope’s value as an artist”… and Hope brought definitely hope in many lives (and got a good price for it).

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The Two Spirits of the Clergyman. At a seance, a clergyman and his wife heard the voice of their stillborn daughter, asking them to sit in front of a psychic photographer, so she could get in the pricture. But instead of the daughter, it was the long-deceased father of the clergyman who appeared… The spiritual world sure acts in mysterious ways…

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The Thomas Brothers and the Spirit of a Grandmother. Joe and Will Thomas were both mediums, living in Wales. The photograph was taken in about 1920. According to the Thomas family, the image superimposed over the brothers was the only photograph in existence of their deceased grandmother. 

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Seance with Levitating Table. But to be honest, the image of a phantom arm seems to have been superimposed over the table, using a double exposure.

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Mourning Scene.  A woman mourns, standing by the body of her deceased husband, who is wrapped in sheets and covered with flowers. Her son is standing beside her. According to Harry Price, the image of a man’s face has been superimposed over the original photograph. William Hope’s spirit album notes that the family, being Roman Catholics, strongly believed in life after death.

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Two Women with the Spirit of a Child. There are two questions written on the reverse of the photograph: why is this child always pushing to the front… and is it possible to receive messages from the higher spirits?

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Spiritualist Couple with Female Spirit. The woman’s face appearing above the couple was identified as the sister of a prominent Spiritualist Church member.  The signatures on this and other pictures are used to authenticate the plate.

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