Join Dalnavert and the University of Manitoba Press as we celebrate The Art of Ectoplasm: Encounters with Winnipeg’s Ghost Photographs with Winnipeg’s Forgotten History: Ghost Photography. Let Dr. Serena Keshavjee, the book’s editor, amaze you with the story of Winnipeggers, T.G. Hamilton and Lillian Hamilton and their investigations into photographing human consciousness after death. Explore the historical significance of séances and the surprising impact the Hamilton’s photo collection had on art and film.
Doors open at 6:30. The event begins at 7:00. Arrive early to purchase a copy of the book, look around the first floor of the historic house, and have a drink at our after-dark bar.
Tickets are $5 general, but only $4 for Dalnavert members
Accessibility
If you have any questions about accessibility, please see the Accessibility section of our website or contact us at info@dalnavertmuseum.ca or by phone at 204-943-2835.
About Serena Keshavjee
Serena Keshavjee is a professor of Art and Architectural history at the University of Winnipeg. Keshavjee’s research focuses on the intersection of art and science in visual culture. Widely published on these subjects, Keshavjee discovered the “ghost” photographs in the Hamilton Family Fonds in 1997, and in 2019, received a SSHRC grant to contextualize the photographs, resulting in the exhibition The Undead Archive and the edited collection The Art of Ectoplasm (University of Manitoba Press, 2023).
AboutThe Art of Ectoplasm
In the wake of the First World War and the 1918–19 pandemic, the world was left grappling with a profound sense of loss. It was against this backdrop that a Winnipeg couple, physician T.G. Hamilton and nurse Lillian Hamilton, began their research, documenting and photographing séances they held in their home laboratory. Their extensive study of the survival of human consciousness after death resulted in a stunning collection of hundreds of photographs, including images of tables flying through the air, mediums in trances, and, most curious of all, ectoplasm—a strange, white substance through which ghosts could apparently manifest.
The Art of Ectoplasm invites readers to explore the Hamiltons’ research and photographic evidence which has attracted international attention from scholars and artists alike. Notable figures like Arthur Conan Doyle participated in the Hamilton family’s séances, and their investigations garnered support among the psychical scientific community, including renowned physicist Oliver Lodge, the inventor of wireless telegraphy. In the century since their creation, the Hamilton photographs (now housed at the University of Manitoba) have continued to perplex and inspire as the subject of academic study, comedic parody, and artistic and cinematic renderings.
This fascinating collection reflects on the history and legacy of the startling and uncanny images found in the Hamilton Family archive. As contemporary society continues to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Art of Ectoplasm offers a compelling look at a chapter in social history not entirely unlike our own.
The Art of Ectoplasm: Encounters with Winnipeg’s Ghost Photographs is available for purchase in Dalnavert’s gift shop.