An Eerie Figure Can Be Seen In A Photo Of Mary Todd Lincoln

In 1872 — when Mary posed for Mumler — photography involved a lot of work from the photographer and a lot of patience from the poser. You couldn’t just snap a picture on a whim and be done with it like we do today.

Mumler had become a notorious figure in the world of photography by 1872. However, he didn't begin his career as a photographer. He was originally an engraver who was only a hobbyist when it came to taking photographs.

In 2017 The New Yorker described what would become the pivotal moment of Mumler’s career. It came in the early 1860s, and it happened after Mumler took a picture of himself and developed the image.

Mumler became convinced that he’d captured an image of his cousin’s ghost. The engraver shared what he’d found with a select group of people in his native Boston. That was when his life began to change.

Mumler later argued, according to The New Yorker, that he had no idea that the spiritualist community would take him to their hearts. But they were so impressed with Mumler's photography that they started to alert the press.

Publications such as the Banner of Light and the Herald of Progress ran stories about Mumler's photography — and the publicity was very good for his business. He started a photography studio in earnest.

The Civil War was fresh in society’s memory and had robbed thousands of people of their loved ones. It’s thought that as many as 620,000 people died in the war, and those left behind were left with massive amounts of grief. Spiritualism seemingly offered an answer.

“Mumler sold himself as someone who couldn’t explain what was happening or why he was chosen to take these pictures,” Manseau explained. “He was as astonished as everyone else that suddenly his camera could take pictures of ghosts.”

You won’t be surprised to hear that there were doubters who cast skepticism on Mumler's claims. J. W. Black, an experienced photographer from Boston, was one of them — and demanded a demonstration from Mumbler.

Manseau explained what happened next in his book The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln’s Ghost. "Mr. Black, I have heard your generous offer," Mumler said when he met Black at his studio. "All I can say is, be thorough in your investigations."

Manseau wrote, “Black watched as his own dark outline appeared on the glass, its form not unlike the photograph he had taken of himself seated with his newspaper. But then another shape began to emerge. ‘My God!’ Black said. ‘Is it possible?’”

L. H. Hale was another prominent photographer in Boston while Mumler was at work. To try to discredit Mumler, Hale attempted to create his own ghostly images — with only a modicum of success.

On one occasion, as reported in Louis Kaplan's The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer, Mumler took a photo of a woman who said her brother had perished in the Civil War. Mumler then managed to "capture" the ghost on camera.

Instead, the lady claimed that “some evil spirit had assumed her brother's form in order to deceive her.” Kaplan described this attitude as common among spiritualists who refused to accept evidence that did not reinforce their beliefs.

The New Yorker reported that the man was "a stray visitor to the studio [who] identified one of the 'spirits' as his wife." That might have been par for the course in this situation — only the man's wife wasn't dead.

Mumler remained a notorious figure, though. In 1869 he was actually arrested on a conspiracy to defraud charge and arraigned in the Tombs, New York. At the trial, many people testified both for and against the photographer.

The writer Manseau told Snopes in 2021, "[Some] claim [Mumler] died penniless and in disgrace after his trial. This does not seem to be true at all. He had a long varied career after 1869."

By the time Mary posed for Mumler's portrait in 1872, it had been roughly seven years since the assassination of her husband, Abraham Lincoln. It had also been ten years since she had lost her son Willie to typhoid fever.

In the picture that Mumler took, Mary is wearing a dark outfit. Her hands are resting on top of each other, and she has a somewhat blank expression. In the background, a faded image of Abe Lincoln appears to be looming over his wife.

It seemed Mumler was pretty proud of his image of Mary and her deceased husband. The photographer even took the time to inform the newspapers about its existence. The Boston Herald published a letter Mumler had written to go along with the image.

"The lady sitter called on the artist for the purpose of having this picture taken some two weeks since closely veiled, so much so that it was impossible to tell if she was black or white," Mumler continued.

"The lady gave the name as Mrs. Tyndall, which was recorded on the engagement book," Mumler added. "Subsequent events have proved the lady to be Mrs. Lincoln, widow of our lamented president, who the 'ghost-like image' looks like I leave you to judge and draw your own inferences."

McWhirter from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum said Mary had an interest in spiritualism at this time. "For solace, she began to reach out to 'mediums' and other representatives of the 'spiritualist' movement to 'commune' with Willie's ghost," he told Snopes.

According to the White House Historical Association, "There is evidence to suggest that [Mary] hosted as many as eight séances in the White House and that her husband was even in attendance for a few of them."

Yet there have also been many — many — so-called sightings of Abraham Lincoln's ghost in the years following his assassination. To the extent that perhaps his ghostly apparition in Mary’s photo shouldn’t be all that surprising. The eerie sightings began when Calvin Coolidge’s wife Grace saw Lincoln in the Oval Office.

In 1940 the British prime minister was staying in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House. After enjoying a soak in the tub, a naked Churchill allegedly spotted Honest Abe near the fireside.

But not everyone took Lincoln’s ghostly appearance as well as Churchill did. Supposedly, Queen Wilhelmina was also in the Lincoln Bedroom a couple of years later when the president made an unexpected appearance. As she slept, the Dutch royal was allegedly woken up by a tap at the door.

But why does Lincoln’s spirit supposedly still lurk within the White House’s walls? Is there any kind of explanation? Well, one man tried to answer that question in October 2017. His name’s Jared Broach.

After doing some digging, Broach shared his findings with The Washington Post. “They say Lincoln always comes back whenever he feels the country is in need or in peril,” Broach said.

In 1946 President Harry S. Truman wrote about his own ghostly encounter. “I jumped up, opened the door, and no one was there,” Truman wrote in a letter to his wife. “I went out and looked up and down the hall, looked in your room and Margie’s.”