If ghosts could speak
Levitating tables, conversations with deceased family members, or fortune-telling: spiritism was a “hot item” in nineteenth-century Belgium. PhD researcher Hannah Welslau (FWO) examines how spiritism found its way from living-room séances to magic at the fairground. Hannah's research focuses on how spiritism was introduced into various types of popular entertainment, such as theatre, lectures and séances. Since her FWO project is related to the Science at the Fair project, the fairground was also an obvious venue to explore. Hannah: "What struck me immediately was that spiritism at the…
Showpeople as early adopters
What role did science and technology once play at the fairground? And how were new technologies such as X-ray technology, photography, and film presented and disseminated through the travelling network of showpeople? PhD researcher Tim Overkempe is currently investigating all of the questions above for the period 1850-1914 within the Science at the Fair project at UAntwerp. While most of us might associate the funfair with nostalgia and perhaps a touch of old-world charm, this was certainly not always the case in the past. Instead, the fairground was often the place-to-be to wonder at new…