Norman's Ghost Show

This fascinating photo has been reblogged left and right on the internet, with virtually zero information attached to it... I have also seen it titled as "Norman's Ghost Hole", it is attributed to 1900, and called a traveling show. Can you imagine taking apart this ornate facade and rebuilding it over and over? Surely it is too intricate to be a traveling show. Is there a space behind it, like a walk-through funhouse? Or is it just a very elaborate stage... where perhaps the lady or gentleman pictured performed psychic readings, fell into trances, and pulled fluffy cotton ectoplasm out of their ears for an astonished Victorian crowd?

Thankfully a clever girl named Mlle Ghoul did some sleuthing and shared links to the manufacturers in the comment section of a blog that reposted the photo. They were an English company named George Orton Sons & Spooner Ltd-- "Orton and Spooner were major ride-builders and decorators based at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Their work spanned early carving through to construction of 19th Century Shows, classic Scenic Railways, up to the design and building of 1930s thrill rides such as the Ark and Dodgem." --via the National Fairground Archive on the University of Sheffield's website.

Here is a link with a brief look at their company history, and another photo collection of their beautiful show fronts and facades. Googling "Orton and Spooner" also yields pages of delightful images, and it's nice to see that many of their creations have been preserved and restored. A paperback book called "Men at Work: The fairground artists and artisans of Orton & Spooner" by Alan S. Howell was published in 2003 and is now out of print.

I really wish I could make out what the signs say on Norman's Ghost Show.

And... who were you, Norman?

Victorian-esque Collage

Pretty pretty! This charming print is by Arizona artist Linda Norton and I found it in her Etsy shop.

new Victorian Memorial Photography book

Say what you will about the recent horror film "A Haunting In Connecticut", but its got some great featurettes in the special features ...one of them being a documentary about the practice of postmortem memorial photography. The short film features interviews with Stanley B. Burns, MD, curator of The Burns Archive-- his extensive collection of historical medical and postmortem photos. He has published two acclaimed books of photos from his archives titled "Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America" and "Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement in Memorial Photography American and European Traditions". I very much enjoyed the featurette!

I finally remembered to look for "Sleeping Beauty" the other day and was dismayed to find it's out of print, and goes from $400- $800 on Amazon. Well--guess I can't buy that one! Volume II is also fairly pricey. Further web surfing brought me to Dr. Burn's archive blog, which in addition to sharing interesting pieces of the collection has also announced that a third book in the series is now available! "Sleeping Beauty III: Memorial Photography- The Children" "enhances the history of postmortem photography and is intended as a reference for bereavement organizations, photographers, hospital staff and parents engaged in renewing the practice of memorial photography. This compilation of over 125 photographs documents images from photography’s earliest era (1840s) up to the present."

Keeping images of lost family members made perfect sense for the time, it's a pity that ordinary folks couldn't afford more photos while their loved ones were alive... especially their children. It's such an alien concept to us now to have pictures like this on display in our homes.

"Sleeping Beauty III" cover

"FAMILY POSED IN FANCY PARLOR ARRANGEMENT, STUKAS STUDIO, SOUTH BOSTON, MA, SILVER PRINT WITH SCALLOPED MATTE 10 BY 8 INCHES, CIRCA 1915" --selected images from the book blog

Dr. Burns appears to offer up these portions of his collection with a good deal of care and respect, and I look forward to reading this book. It's currently available for $29.95 at sleepingbeauty3.com.