A collection of spooky photos dating back nearly 100 years are the subject of a talk on Thursday at the University of Manitoba.
Beginning around 1920, Dr. T.G. Hamilton took pictures of séances at his family home on Henderson Highway for over 15 years. When he died his family took over and eventually the photos were donated to the U of M archives.
Hundreds of the photos show a paranormal phenomenon called “externalized teleplasms,” which is said to show a visible substance emanating from a spiritual medium.
Shelley Sweeney, an archive expert, said she is particularly interested in the photos that show everyone in the room collapsed.
“It’s very compelling to see and you think, ‘OK, well maybe it could have been manipulated’ but on the other hand everybody was affected by it, so I think that there’s just so much to learn about the séances that just haven’t been explored,” she said.
The talk is on Thursday at 7 p.m. at U of M’s Dafoe Library-Archives and Special Collections.
