Profs & Pints: Apparitions

A look at the history of purported photographs of apparitions and the controversies surrounding them, with Beth Saunders, art historian and curator and head of special collections at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Since its invention in 1839, photography has been hailed for its ability to record an accurate image of reality. Its presumed truthfulness has made the new medium an ideal tool for scientific investigation, and the camera was quickly harnessed to record phenomena previously unseen by the naked eye. They include microscopic bacteria, distant nebulae—and more than a few ghosts.

Join Beth Saunders, a curator and art historian who has published on apparition photographs and the art of conspiracy, for a fascinating look at the history of spirit photography and its associated controversies and hoaxes.