#Seance circle series

The Victorian-era ideal of “True Womanhood” decreed that women were to live according to four principles: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity (Johnson 2002:4–5). Women were admonished to refrain from expressing opinions, especially in public. Social expectations for women in the nineteenth century were specific: above all, women were to be modest and pious, and to sacrifice their own needs for those of their families. The Seybert Commission at the University of Pennsylvania began “scientific” investigations of mediums along with the phenomena they produced during a séance.ġ885: Leah Fox Underhill, the eldest of the Fox sisters, published her autobiography The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism.ġ887: The Seybert Report was published, discrediting and debunking mediumship and denouncing Spiritualism.ġ888: The two younger Fox Sisters, Kate and Maggie, declared that their spirit communications had a been a hoax.ġ890: Spiritualism’s credibility plummeted further as new scandals involving fraudulent mediums came to light.ġ891: Nettie Colburn Maynard published her memoir Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist?ġ893: The National Spiritualist Association of Churches was founded at the World’s Parliament of Religions at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.ġ896: Emma Hardinge Britten published Faith, Facts, and Frauds of Religious History.ġ899: Emma Hardinge Britten died and her autobiography, The Autobiography of Emma Hardinge Britten, was published posthumously.ġ901: Leonora Piper claimed that mediumship was impossible, suggesting instead that she was endowed with telepathic powers.ġ909: The famous Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino came to America.ġ917 (April 6): The United States entered World War Iġ918: Margery “Mina” Crandon submitted to multiple investigations of her Spiritualist abilities.ġ920 (August 26): American women gained universal suffrage, and Spiritualism’s popularity continued its precipitous decline. Older and more established mediums began to distance themselves from flamboyant demonstrations and gimmicky séances.ġ884: Emma Hardinge Britten published Nineteenth Century Miracles. The Spiritualist Amanda Slocum and her husband started Common Sense (1874–1878), a pro-women’s suffrage Spiritualist journal in San Francisco.ġ875: Spiritualist Victoria Woodhull of New York ran for President of the United States.ġ880s: Spiritualist séances grew less “spiritual” and more theatrical. Marvin published The Pathology and Treatment of Mediomania, pathologizing female mediumship.

#Seance circle series

Juliet Stillman spoke of women’s health and dress reform at a Spiritualist convention in Chicago.ġ867: San Francisco’s first Spiritualist paper The Banner of Progress (1867–1869) was founded.ġ868: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps published The Gates Ajar, her first in a series of Spiritualist novels.ġ870: Emma Hardinge Britten published Modern American Spiritualism.ġ870s: Mediumship proliferated, giving rise to multiple kinds of mediumistic activity, such as physical mediumship, slate writing, automatic writing, and trance-speaking.ġ874: Dr. Laura Cuppy, suffragist and Spiritualist, moved to San Francisco where she contributed to a growing Spiritualist movement on the West Coast.ġ865: Dr. Farnham delivered her first lecture in San Francisco, marking Spiritualism’s move westward.ġ864: Emma Hardinge Britten lectured in San Francisco for the first time.ġ865: Mrs. Numerous other women “mediums” also began to demonstrate their ability to communicate with the dead through “trance speaking.”ġ850s: Christian leaders began to warn their congregations about the evils of Spiritualism, which were considered to be blasphemous.ġ852: The first issue of the Spiritualist weekly paper The Spiritual Telegraph (1852–1860) was released in New York.ġ855: Emma Hardinge Britten moved from London to New York where she discovered Spiritualism and became a well-known medium.ġ857: The first issue of the Spiritualist paper Banner of Light (1857–1907) was released in Boston.ġ859: Spiritualist medium Amanda Britt Spence delivered a speech in Boston that explicitly supported equality of the sexes and challenged traditional gender roles. 1848 (March 31): The Fox Sisters claimed to have communicated with the spirit of a dead man, via a system of raps and knocks, at their home in Hydesville, New York.ġ849-1850s: The Fox Sisters traveled throughout upstate New York, New England, and Southern Ontario giving public demonstrations of their alleged ability to communicate with spirits.