New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-03-28
Photos Created
Sensation When
Made Public

and Mrs. Lee. The dots we're moi
visible in the heads.
"At first view," writes DR.. Primo
"about the most convincing pboto.
graph among those of which tn.
society possesses copies is that repre.
sented in Plate rs. OF none wa,
more confidence expressed that 4
was taken and developed under test
conditions, but no attempt was mads
to identify figures. Alas, it is an
exact copy Of the frontispiece i,
The Cosmopolitan Magazine fo,
October, 1895, except that it is re-.
versed and little is pared awav
from the left side of the bottom
The original was drawn by Joss
Cabrinety as an illustration for
prose poem entitled The Pursuit q,
Happiness If a spirit produced
that picture because it made
strong impression upon him when hs
was on earth then he certainly has
a great memory for details. | can
barely conceive Of spirit taking
photograph, somehow, of a maya.
zine illustration, though I would ex.
pect him, if a bishop, to tell the
truth about it. But it is much easier
for me to conceive of somebody on
this side who has a not too inquirinp
client passing it off for what it il
not"
In notes on his report DIR. Primes
reveals some Of the information
supplied him concerning the circun-
stances attending the taking" Of
this spirit photograph. Mrs. Lee
wrote him as follows:
Mrs. Lees Records
II am glad to have an exact
record as to how the photo to which
you refer was obtained. l copy from
the album in which the print is
pasted: May IA, 1914. Plates in.
closed in opaque envelopes by R. s.
Baker, 1922 F Street. Taken by me
to DR.. Keeler's, 1889 Otis Street. at
night. Held in hands by DR.. X. and
myself until three raps were heard.
Developed at once Plates never
left my hands for the fraction of
second. Developed by me, DR.. X. at
a distance from developer This
letter was written to DR.. Prince by
Mrs. Lee February "a, 1919, which
would indicate that at fairly re-
cent date she was still confident that
the pictures had been made SUPER
naturally.
In showing how some other PIC
lures were supposed to have been
taken and developed DR.. Prince
quotes an inscription written by
Mrs. Lee on the fly leaf of an album
of 200 of the photographs:
"Photos taken by DR.. William NJ.
Keller Sunday mornings with Gen.
fury camera. Some photos taken by
focusing camera on black curtain.
Exposure about half a minute. De-
veloped by DR.. Keller, often NJ. du
Pont Lee present
Balks at Witne.
"a fact whose significance it IS
difficult to escape" according to DR..
Prince, ''is that DR.. Keller will un-
der no circumstances allow person
to be present during the photo-
graphing or developing who repre-
sents the Society for Psychical Re-
search or who is not entirely satis-
factory to him."
DR.. Prince says that Keeler's
aversion to anything that savors OF
expert examination is of long stand.
ing.
In his relations with Mrs. Lee,
Keller frequently produced spirit
photographs of script which pur'
ported to be messages from the Rev.
DR.. Bocock. Mrs. Lee and the de-
parted minister had many "coni-
munications" with each other by
this means, usually concerning the
photographs.
A plate would be developed and
10 and behold, there would be
message from Bocock himself.
Concerning these spirit writings,
DR.. Princes report contains copy
of letter from Albert S. Osborn,
handwriting expert, of 235 Broad
way, and enlarged photographs come
pairing Keeler's handwriting with
that there were by the same hand,
writing experts letter follows:
II have examined numerous all
lodged spirit writings which 1t IS
alleged came from spirits through
one W. NJ Keller and have compared
these writings with !et.or signed
w. NJ. Keller and an accompanying