Photographs from the Shadowy Realm: Photography and Spiritualism

Conan Doyle has an exceptionally broad oeuvre consisting of books, pamphlets, stories and numerous smaller publications of letters from readers, as well as reams of articles, all of which are dedicated to the broad topic of spiritualism. Beginning with the end of the second decade of the twentieth century, and right up to his death, Conan Doyle mounted a veritable spiritualist campaign that involved lecture tours throughout Europe, the United States, and also Australia and New Zealand, in order to convince the world of what he held to be the most important event since the death of Jesus nearly two thousand years before. This chapter explores the strategic function of photography in these contexts.