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…

Why do we seem to be simultaneously obsessed and outraged by people who lie, invent different identities and dupe people into believing them? Tricksters and frauds have been around for ages, making up one colourful persona after the other. How can researchers deal with dishonest historical actors, for example when looking at the fairground? In this article, Hannah Welslau looks back on a research seminar with professor Tine Van Osselaer on the topic of imposters and the ambivalent sources they have left. Liars are fascinating. In the last years, famous scammers such as the fake heiress Anna…

Have you ever been seized by the historical weight of an object? Experienced an incomprehensible bond with an artefact? Or feel that a thing was silently questioning you? Suddenly, the material does not appear as inert as it should be, but it has something. A soul, perhaps? In this article, researcher Thibaut Rioult takes you on his quest for "charged objects". On the eighteenth and nineteenth-century fairground, a place full of oddities and marvels, fascinating objects could be found. The carnival barker called the public to come and see the wonders of talking heads, fortune teller machines,…

What happened during a spiritist séance in the nineteenth century? How can we piece together these fleeting, otherworldly gatherings? With sources like press reports, promotional material or exceptionally even photographs, it is possible to reconstruct and analyse these spectacular, occult performances of the past. That is precisely one of the challenges of my PhD research on spiritism in Belgium, and its relationship to popular entertainment. Let me introduce you to some aspects of a spiritist séance you would very likely have encountered, had you been a person looking for a night of…