ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Sensationalising Spiritualist Fraud: E. Ray Lankester’s Alleged Exposure of Henry Slade in the Victorian Press

• In Event: Science and Spiritualism: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

English Abstract

One of the most memorable episodes in the history of Victorian spiritualism occurred in the autumn of 1876. While residing in London, the American medium Henry Slade was allegedly caught cheating during one of his séances. His performances featured a remarkable feat where supposedly blank writing slates received written messages from spirits. Slade’s séances were hugely popular with spiritualists, and he became a major celebrity within the movement. In September 1876, the famed biologist and sceptic E. Ray Lankester attended one of Slade’s séances with a physician named Horatio Bryan Donkin. The two men claimed that while Slade was preparing a blank slate for receiving spirit messages, Lankester seized it from the medium’s hands only to discover that there were pre-recorded words already written on it. Lankester and Donkin published their revelations as a series of letters in the London Times, and a scandal erupted. The case rested on the testimonies of the three men present. Lankester and Donkin claimed fraud, but Slade pleaded for his innocence. The situation escalated further when Lankester, determined to ruin Slade’s reputation, filed a lawsuit under the terms of the Vagrancy Act of 1824. Spiritualism was going to trial, and the British media sensationalized the case. The court proceedings of Slade’s trial were published in several newspapers, and the spiritualist press printed articles defending Slade’s professed psychic powers. This talk explores how issues of evidence and scientific authority were central to the sensationalisation of Henry Slade’s alleged exposure in the Victorian press.

Author

• Efram Sera-Shriar, University of Copenhagen