John Beatie, 1872

...What if our own human perception of ghosts was a force that somehow influenced their manifestation? If the appearance of an apparition stemmed from events that occurred on a quantum level, for instance, there may be scientific justification for things we do influencing a projected impression from the past in hindsight.

Strange though this may sound, my colleague Amelia Crater, writing for Mysterious Universe, included a similar angle in one of her recent assessments:

In 2007, the journal Science published a paper on particle physics describing an experiment on the subatomic level where quantum rules apply, a researcher found he could influence whether a photon collapsed into wave or particle by flipping a switch after the fact, which I don’t understand well enough to explain adequately. In short, he could change the photon’s history. Or as physicist John Wheeler extrapolated, “We are participators in bringing about something of the universe in the distant past.

Though only vaguely at present, this might have some bearing on why part of the physical manifestations of ghosts themselves include the appearance of things like clothing. In essence, the manifestation of a “ghost” in any capacity could be influenced by the perception and actions of the witness, and on a quantum level, the fabric between space, time, human thought, and what we perceive as “reality” are all tangent, and more similar than anyone ever realized. To borrow the same Faulkner quote Amelia uses at her article’s outset, “The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.” Considering that, on a quantum level, ghostly apparitions could be an extension of something else which, strangely, humans maintain some level of influence over, perhaps no words could better describe this unique relationship mankind harnesses occasionally with what we perceive to be “the spirit world.”

-- Micah A. Hanks

William H. Mumler, 1870s

Paul Sano, Double Portrait of Mrs. Corbet, 1912 -- Autochrome

Calvin: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn't they have color film back then?

Dad: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It's just the
world was black and white then.

Calvin: Really?

Dad: Yep. The world didn't turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.

Calvin: That's really weird.

Dad: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.

Calvin: But then why are old paintings in color?! If their world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted it that way?

Heinrich Kuhn, 1906 (est.) -- Gum print

Dad: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.

Calvin: But... but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn't their paints have been shades of gray back then?

Dad: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the '30s.

Calvin: So why didn't old black and white photos turn color too?

Dad: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

Paul Sano, Lady and Fruit Dish, 1920 -- Autochrome

A wonderful conversations by the infamous Calvin and his father.

I saw something very beautiful today at the St. Peter Art Center Opening.

The gallery director said some unknown person put that there a few days ago, but no one had taken any money yet.

I couldn't help it, I pinned up a dollar too.

Also, The exhibit was great. St. Peter has a fantastic art center run by fantastic people!!

I wish I had taken more pictures.

Just a little update, two of my pieces were chosen for a show at the Art Center of St. Peter, MN.

Between Spaces/ Spaces Between -- Aug 27-Oct 3, Opening Reception Aug 27 5-7pm.

The exhibition features selected items from our MCAD MFA print portfolios. Each yeah of the graduate program we had the chance to participate in a print exchange with the other grad students. There were no real restrictions beyond size, but use of traditional Printmaking methods were encouraged including intaglio, serigraphy, lithography, and more. Many of the photographers who participated chose to do archival inkjet prints on heavy water color paper which was equally as tactile and beautiful.

It was a fantastic opportunity, not only share work with each other, but in the end the collections were purchased by Target Corp. (they actually have a huge art collection), Weisman Art Museum, and of course MCAD.

My two pieces were:

Nathan Lewis, La Bruja del Agua, Intaglio photo transfer, 2007

Nathan Lewis, We Are Building Ghost Towns, and I will Plant Birds, Archival inkjet print on watercolor paper, 2008

Noelle also had a piece included:

Noelle McCleaf, Cicada, Archival inkjet print on watercolor paper, 2008

There were many other amazing artists in the show that I am proud to be hanging next to, including:

Emily Sheehan, Without Touching, Intaglio, 2007

Teri Fullerton, Lacuna, Digital print, 2007

Alice Dodge, Where would we be without you?, 2007

Osla Thomason, Lost, Pronto plate, 2008

Jennifer Hibbard, Once upon a Happily Ever After, Screenprint, 2008

Kate Anderson, Distant, Intaglio photo transfer and letterpress, 2007

Abbi Allan, There’s a Place in France Where the Naked Ladies Dance, Photopolymer intaglio, 2008

Also:

Ben Reed

Tim Abel

Mike Sgier

Matt Sochocki

Diana Eicher

Emily Hoisington

Stephen Klassen

Catrin Magnusson

Molly Roth

Angela Zammarelli

and more!

I'll be at the opening with some of the other artists, Hope to see you there!!

New Work

Nathan Lewis, Untitled, 2010

The intention of this little book is to say a few words in a kindly way to those who have photographs taken, in order than the intercourse between them and their photographer may be pleasant, and result in the most successful pictures. People who desire pictures generally seen [sic] unwilling to give the necessary time to secure good ones. As time is precious therefore, we publish this that you may be informed beforehand on certain pints [sic] a knowledge of which will save time. Please peruse what follows carefully.

[The Photographer] is entitled to the same respect and consideration from you as your minister, your physician, or your lawyer, and it is just as essential that he should have rules for the best government of his establishment as it is for anyone else whom you patronize, consequently you should be quite unwilling to trespass upon such reasonable regulations as he may make as you would to apply a flyblister when you [sic] physician orders you to take soothing syrup.

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin

…the light is best when the heavens are clouded and the sun shines through the clouds. Lighthaired and lighteyed subjects should avoid a very bright day if convenient.

Arrangements for the babies should be made so as not interfere with their daily sleep, as they look and feel so much better and sweeter after a nap.

Arrange matters at the office, or the shop, or at home, or with you [sic] creditors, so that you can take it perfectly easy during the operations of awaiting your turn and the making of your picture. If you do, the likeness will be calm, peaceful, and true to you, and you will feel repaid for your tranquility.

Robert Cornelius

Dress is a matter which should have your careful attention. The photographer is very much tried by his patrons sometimes, who place upon their persons, when about to sit for a picture, all sorts of gewgaws and haberdasheries which they never wear when at home, or when mingling among their friends. The consequence is some miserable distortions and caricatures, which chagrin all concerned. Dress naturally, and think a little while you are about it.

Ladies with dark or brown hair especially, should avoid such contrast [very light colors with their very dark hair.] Open lacework collars and embroideries are prettier than solid ones, which the latter are apt to take white. Ladies and children with light hair should dress in something lighter than those whose hair is dark or brown. We will give you a photographic reason for this. Light substances photograph more quickly than dark. Hence is a fair person wears dark dresses, either the person wil be overdone and vice versa with a dark person.

This subject [behavior] we broach reluctantly, but we often meet the opposition from our patrons which is certain to spoil the results, and which absorbs too much time. For our mutual good, permit us to be frank. The headrest must be used, not to give the position, but that you may keep it. The natural pulsations of the body cause it to move in (in spite of the strongest will) sufficient to make your negative useless. Time will be saved then, by it’s use. Wink as much as you please, but don’t turn your eyes. While sitting for your picture, forget all dolefulness, and also forget where you are. Whistle Yankee Doodle mentally, or think of some pleasant thing that will enliven your spirits and impress a pleasant look upon you [sic] face.

You cannot judge of your picture from the negative, so please save our time by not asking to see it. We will show you a printed proof, and sit you again if it is unsatisfactory. Please give us time to print your pictures carefully and well.

We are always glad to take a reasonable amount of paints with children. They are subjects that make lovely pictures, but they are often difficult to secure. We can always get something of them, and if it is not satisfactory the first or second time, it is not apt to be so all that day and it is best to bring them again. Never threaten a child if it won’t sit, and never coax it with sweetmeats.

Our prices are kept at reasonable rates. There may be work done for less, but we ask that quality be given the preference.

- Edward L. Wilson, 1871

Transcribed from an exhibit at the Pipestone, MN Historical Museum.

We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.

-- John Naisbitt

Toni Frissell, Weeki Wachi Spring, 1947

We are specifically interested in how technologies like photographs show us the past in the present; they seem to haunt us because we see so viscerally today what happened in the past. - Jennifer Blessing

Christian Boltansky

Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance

The Guggenheim

Introducing themes such as landscape, architecture and the passage of time; documentation and reiteration; and trauma and the uncanny, the curators highlight works by artists such as Tacita Dean, An-My Lê, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and others. Haunted reveals how much of contemporary photography and video seems haunted by the past, by ghostly apparitions that are reanimated in reproductive media, in live performance, and in the virtual world.

Joan Jonas

Sophie Calle

Anthony Hernandez

Lawrence Weiner

Sally Mann

Much of contemporary photography and video seems haunted by the past, by ghostly apparitions that are reanimated in reproductive media, live performance, and the virtual world. Focusing especially on work created since 2001, Haunted traces the widespread integration of photography into contemporary art since the 1960s, spurred by the innovation and diffusion of reproductive mediums, which occurred in tandem with the paradigm-shifting expansion of the notion of art itself that has defined art production ever since. The pieces collected in this book range from individual photographs and photographic series, to sculptures and paintings that incorporate photographic elements, to videos, film, performance and site-specific installations. Includes artists such as Marina Abramoviæ, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sophie Calle, Tacita Dean, Stan Douglas, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Joan Jonas, Sherrie Levine, Sally Mann, Christian Marclay, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jeff Wall, and Andy Warhol.

What the heck am I doing in Minneapolis!? I need to be living at the Guggenheim soaking up this exhibition!

MotM

Update!! I got a Letter regarding the Planchette from Richard Fink at Museum of the Macabre.

Thank you for the email and congratulations on your find. The planchette you purchased is definitely unique!

Our research into early planchette production indicates that Selchow and Righter were the first American company to manufacture the devices for commercial purposes. There were, of course, planchettes made long before that...Ancient Chinese and Native American Indians had similar devices.

The planchette you own is likely one of the first to be produced commercially in the United States. It was probably produced in the late 1860s by Selchow and Righter at their New York factory. When the company first marketed and advertised its product, it was advertised as a "scientific instrument." Its initial use was to detect involuntary motion, (often called the idiomotor effect) in humans. Basically, the planchette was first advertised as a tool which could tap into the human subconcious.

With the growth of the Spiritualism movement in the late 1860s, however, people began to use the planchette to communicate with deceased spirits. The planchette you read about on our website, the "Mystic of Mystics," was the first one commercially advertised for a Spiritualist audience.

Your planchette looks like its in great shape! Congratulations and hope this helps.

PS - We would be interested in writing an article about your planchette if you were willing to allow us to use your images. No worries if you don't feel like sharing, just wanted to offer!

Whoa! It just gets better and better!

Eusapia Paladino via Museum of the Macabre's section on Mediums.

At a flea market today I found the most incredible thing.

A "Scientific Planchette" Manufactured by "Selchow & Righter."

THE SCIENTIFIC PLANCHETTE.

__________________

From the Original Pattern

First Made in 1860. (IMPROVED.)

HOW TO WORK PLANCHETTE:

Place Planchette on a sheet of paper [printing or wrapping will answer,] then place the hand lightly on the board; in a few minutes it begins to move and is ready to answer mental or spoken questions. When a party of three or more come together, it is almost impossible that one cannot operate Planchette. If one be not successful, let two try it together. That Planchette is capable of giving a large amount of amusement, is beyond doubt, nor is it less likely to afford instruction and a wide field for speculation and experiment to the scientific.

SELCHOW & RIGHTER

Manufacturers, New York.

That is really the only information on the item or the box. Since it says it was First made in the 1860s but has been improved I can safely assume it was produced before the Turn of the Century.

Admittedly I don't know much about these. So I did a quick internet search and came across the "Museum of Talking Boards." My exact model wasn't featured, but a similar Selchow & Righter one was:

This is a particularly fine example of a pretty maple automatic writing writer circa 1875 by Selchow and Righter. The instructions state that Planchette the Mystic of Mystics is the "scientific planchette from the original pattern, first made in 1860." Although the phantasms on the front of the box are obviously not of this world, there is no mention of spiritual communion of any kind.

Judging by the ornate illustrations on the cover I bet the one they have featured is a new model than mine.

On another site "Museum of the Macabre" I found a great deal more information:

Selchow and Righter were a 19th century game manufacturer from Bay Shore, New York.

While the company is probably best known for producing Parcheesi and Scrabble, it also developed planchettes for commercial use.

Planchettes were produced by Selchow and Righter out of a New York City factory it owned at 41 John Street.

It became the first company to market planchettes as spirit communication devices with the release of "Mystic of Mystics" in 1875.

The fancy leaf-shaped instrument gained distinction for its colorful packaging and likely the earliest planchette to be sold in a box. Its wrapping featured and illustration of three deceased interacting with the planchette as it scribbled on a piece of paper.

Although Selchow and Righter gained notoriety for producing board games and entertainment devices, the depictions reveals that the company intended for Mystics of Mystics to be employed as a spirit communication device.

Additional instructions on the product itself assured spirit seekers that it was a "scientific planchette" and not some board game. The approach proved to be both sustainable and lucrative for Selchow and Righter as the company continued to manufacture Mystic of the Mystics until the mid-20th century. Language used to market the product further confirmed the corporation's objectives. In an advertisement featured in Scribner's Magazine, a planchette that "beats table-tipping, spirit-rapping, etc., etc." is offered for $1.00.

Selchow and Righter began producing a board game called "Madame Planchette's Horoscope" game in the mid-1960s. In 1986 the company was purchased by Coleco Industries for $75 million in cash and notes.

An advertisement for a Selchow & Righter Planchette found in an 1889 Scribner's Magazine.

Finally I checked eBay to see if anyone was selling a similar Planchette and had more information. I was surprised to find a couple:

Pre-Ouija Board / Scientific Planchette Circa 1860's

It is without a doubt the same model. It is amazing to see them talk about how great the condition of their item is despite a trashed box, torn off instructions, and FAKE scrawled across it.

Predates Ouija Board - Scientific Planchette - Made 1860's

I am completely elated about my find today. I KNOW I have something very very special, and in fantastic condition. It has quickly become one of my favorite possessions. Hopefully someone in the future may even use it to contact me!