WCP3456

Letter (WCP3456.2943)

[1]1

Queen's Chambers,

Adelaide

14 Nov[ember] 1891

A. R. Wallace Esq[uire]

Dear Sir,

I have received your favour of 18 Sep[tember]. dealing with Miss Houghton[']s2 account of Hudson's3 spirit photographs —

With respect to her 'Chronicles'4 I must say that I was not favorably [sic] impressed with her, her original matter gives one the idea of a very soft woman, almost an idiot, but she could not help her book being interesting, as she quotes a great deal from the spiritualistic newspapers & gives copies of several letters from parties who had had successful settings — Her report of the Naming of the picture of Mrs Guppy,5 child & spirit seemed however circumstantial roughly to require me to notice it — Was not Mr Guppy6 as well as Hudson charged with trickery in connection with these [2] matters? I fancy that I am not clear that I have seen something in print to that effect —

I am much obliged by your offer to show me the two cartes, if I ever visit England, but I have them already, also that of yourself & mother,7 Mr Hudson & Thurston8 & three others — all of which came to me through Christian Reiners9 — poor old man! He was in spite of his native genius, as innocent as a child, and was served several very shabby tricks in Adelaide by those who consider spiritualism a fair subject for sport. However his earthly troubles are over, he died some two years ago, I think in the Red Sea on a voyage to Europe —

Yours sincerely, | Edward A D Opie10 [signature]

1
The page is numbered 242 in pencil in the top RH corner.
2
Houghton, Georgiana (1814-1884). British artist and spiritualist medium, born in Las Palmas, but later moved to London. She began producing 'spirit' drawings in 1859 at private séances and exhibited them at the New British gallery in Bond Street London in 1871.
3
Hudson, Frederick Augustus (b. c.1812). British spirit photographer who was active in the 1870s. He established his own studio in London and worked with the medium Georgiana Houghton (see Endnote 2). Hudson's photographs were exposed as fraudulent in 1872 by a fellow spiritualist, William Henry Harrison. Hudson was known to dress up as spirits or use double exposure to produce his spirit photography.
4
In 1882, Georgiana Houghton (see Endnote 2) published Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye. The book included alleged spirit photographs from Frederick Hudson (see Endnote 3) and other photographers featuring mediums such as Agnes Guppy-Volckman (see Endnote 5), Stainton Moses and spiritualists William Howitt and ARW.
5
Guppy-Volckman, Agnes Elisabeth (née Nichol) (1838-1917). British spiritualist medium, known as Mrs Guppy in Victorian spiritualist circles. She became the second wife of the spiritualist Samuel Guppy (see Endnote 6) in 1867. After the death of Guppy in 1875, she married William Volckman. Guppy-Volckman was discovered by ARW in 1866 at his sister's Frances (Fanny) Sims' house about a year after he started his investigation into spiritualism in 1865. She managed to dupe him into believing she could communicate with spirits.
6
Guppy, Samuel (1790?-1875). British spiritualist and husband of Agnes Guppy (née White known as Agnes Nichol) (see Endnote 5).
7
In 1874, ARW visited Georgiana Hudson (see Endnote 3) and a photograph of him with his deceased mother was produced. ARW declared the photograph genuine. In Wallace, A R (1875) On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism London, James Burns, pp.190-91, he says "I see no escape from the conclusion that some spiritual being, acquainted with my mother's various aspects during life, produced these recognisable impressions on the plate."
8
Thurston, Herbert Henry Charles (1856-1939) English priest of the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the Jesuit order, a scholar on liturgical, literary, historical matters and a spiritualist investigator.
9
Not identified.
10
Opie, Edward Andrew Devonshire (1843-1923). Born Launceston, Tasmania, died Adelaide, South Australia. He was an "old scholar" of Adelaide Educational Institution and clerk to George Witherage Cotton (1821-1892) a land dealer and Member of the South Australian Legislative Council, who championed a scheme to put working men onto smallholdings on which they could carry out agricultural production. In 1879 Cotton retired from real estate, leaving the business to Opie and his son George Samuel Cotton (ca.1858-1918).

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3456.2943)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP3456,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3456