Abraham Lincoln’s ‘ghost portrait’ taken after assassination

The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne hosts a portion of the Lincoln Financial Foundation collection, including many photos of the Lincoln family.

But it’s also home to a few macabre keepsakes, including an original print of Mary Todd Lincoln by the infamous spirit photographer William H. Mumler. The photograph was alleged to show the president’s ghost standing behind the former first lady with his hands on her shoulders, lovingly watching over her. Mumler photographed the former first lady in 1872, seven years after her husband’s assassination.

At the time, spiritualism in America was very much a religion, practiced by many who had lost loved ones in the Civil War and to disease. Mary herself had lost two sons and her husband. As her mental and physical health declined, she found much comfort in the photograph and the idea that she could peek behind the veil of death and communicate with her loved ones.

Mumler and his wife, a famous “healing medium” who conducted business in her own right, began his successful business in Boston and later moved to New York. But critics claimed Mumler was a fraud, and he was brought to trial.