Ghosts in the Machines: A History of Spirit Communication Devices
Author, historian, and collector Brandon Hodge discusses the earliest origins of spiritual communion in rapping and table-tipping mediumship right up through the modern day, all told through the development of the myriad apparatus that spread through the spiritualist movement and crossed-over into popular culture through the decades. Spiritualism’s history is deeply tied to the psychic apparatus that enabled its adherents to communicate with the dead, and this presentation explores the cultural history of Tuttle Psychographs, automatic writing planchettes, and Ouija boards, while physical artifacts on-hand from Brandon's collection will allow attendants to get up close and personal with the means our ancestors used to commune with the dead.
Presented with the support of the NEH Curatorial Studies Initiative
