Last updated Katie King materialized, photograph of Sir William Crookes.Katie King, Florence Cook and Sir William Crookes
Katie King was the name given by Spiritualists in the 1870s to what they believed to be a materialized spirit. The question of whether the spirit was real or a fraud was a notable public controversy of the mid-1870s.
The spirit was said to have appeared first between 1871 and 1874 in séances conducted by Florence Cook in London, and later in 1874–1875 in New York in séances held by the mediumsJennie Holmes and her husband Nelson Holmes.
Katie King was believed by Spiritualists to be the daughter of John King, a spirit control of the 1850s through the 1870s that appeared in many séances involving materialized spirits.
A spirit control is a powerful and communicative spirit that organizes the appearance of other spirits at a séance. John King claimed to be the spirit of Henry Morgan, the buccaneer (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 241, 277).
Florence Cook
Florence Cook (ca 1856 – 1904) was a teenage girl who started to claim mediumistic abilities in 1870 and in 1871-2 she developed her abilities under the established mediums Frank Herne and Charles Williams. Herne was associated with the spirit "John King", and Florence became associated with "Katie King", stated to be John King's daughter. Herne was exposed as a fraud in 1875.[1] Katie King developed from appearing as a disembodied face to a fully physical materialisation.[2]
At Hackney on 9 December 1873, lawyer William Volckman attended a séance held by Florence Cook, during which Katie King materialized and, as was customary, held the hands of participants.[3] Suspicious of the spirit's similarity with Cook, Volckman seized the spirit's hand and waist, accusing it of being the medium masquerading as her ghost. The spirit was wrestled from Volckman's grasp by other participants and returned to a cabinet from which Cook emerged some minutes later. Volckman published his opinion that the spirit was a masquerade by Cook.[4] Supporters of Miss Cook denounced Volckman on the grounds that he had broken his agreement to proper etiquette required in the séance, thus negating his credibility as an investigator: Volckman was associated with another medium, Mrs Guppy, who might have wished to denigrate her rival.[5][6] Moreover, it was argued that since spirits borrowed energy and matter from their medium, it was not surprising that Katie King resembled Cook. Despite the defence of their position, Cook and her supporters were hurt by this incident — newspapers were referring to it as an "exposure"[7] — and sought further support for their position. To this end, they turned to Crookes, who was a prominent and respected scientist.[8]
Between 1871 and 1874, Sir William Crookes investigated the preternatural phenomena produced by Spiritualist mediums. He described the conditions he imposed on mediums as follows: "It must be at my own house, and my own selection of friends and spectators, under my own conditions, and I may do whatever I like as regards apparatus" (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 177).
A 15-year-old Cook, alone in Crookes's house with Crookes's friends and family as witnesses, was said to have materialized the spirit of Katie King, who walked about, talked, allowed herself to be weighed and measured, and even held the family's baby (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 241). On one occasion, at a joint seance in Crookes's home in March 1874, Katie King was seen in company with "Florence Maple", a spirit materialised by the medium Mary Showers who was exposed as a fraud shortly thereafter.[9][10][11] The sessions were held with the medium secluded in the dark, because Spiritualists believe that materialization requires very dim surroundings to succeed, though occasionally the spirits materialised in the light and some photographs were taken.[9] As is apparently typical of materialized spirits, Katie's exact height and weight varied, though Katie was always taller than Florence Cook, with a larger face, and different hair and skin. According to those present, the two were both visible at the same moments, so that Florence could not have assumed the role of the spirit (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 235–240).
The final appearances of Katie King in connection with Florence Cook took place in April and May 1874 at the Cook family home in Hackney. The audiences were invited to sit in a parlour opening onto a bedroom, in which Florence would start her trance. After some time Katie King would emerge. At some point the audience would be shown a figure, apparently Florence, lying on the floor of the bedroom with her head covered by a shawl while Katie King was still visible in the parlour. A number of the witnesses, such as Edward W. Cox, recorded their doubts about the proceedings, while others claimed that they had seen the two clearly, such as Crookes and Florence Marryat, who claimed that she had seen Katie naked in Florence's company.[12]
Crookes's report, published in 1874, contained his assertion that Florence Cook, as well as the mediums Kate Fox and Daniel Dunglas Home, were producing genuine preternatural phenomena (Crookes 1874). The publication caused an uproar, and his testimony about Katie King was considered the most outrageous and sensational part of the report.
After news of Katie King had spread abroad, the American mediums Jennie and Nelson Holmes also claimed to have materialized her. Robert Dale Owen, the politician and avowed Spiritualist, had experienced this materialization and wrote about it in an article for the Atlantic Monthly in January 1875.[14]
Just as the article was going to press, however, a woman named Eliza White stepped forward and claimed to have masqueraded as Katie.[15] White's face matched that of "Katie King" in photographs sold by the Holmeses and their agents. Both the Atlantic Monthly and Owen admitted in public to being duped.[16]Arthur Conan Doyle maintains that this "exposure" did more damage to Spiritualism than any other exposure of the period (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 269–277).
Investigations conducted by leading Spiritualist Henry Steel Olcott in 1875 re-established the credibility of the Holmeses in the eyes of many Spiritualists.[17] The story eventually accepted by most Spiritualists was that Eliza White had been hired to pose as Katie King for a photograph to sell to the public. The Holmeses had not wanted to photograph the real Katie King, since bright light would have ruined the materialization. Once involved, Eliza White first extorted money from the Holmeses, and then sold the story to the press. (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 269–277).
Related Research Articles
Sir William Crookes was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing the Crookes tube which was made in 1875. This was a foundational discovery that eventually changed the whole of chemistry and physics.
Spiritualism is a social religious movement primarily popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries according to which an individual's awareness persists after death and may be contacted by the living. The afterlife, or the "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to the belief that spirits are capable of providing useful insight regarding moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of God. Some spiritualists speak of a concept which they refer to as "spirit guides"—specific spirits, often contacted, who are relied upon for spiritual guidance. Emanuel Swedenborg has some claim to be the father of spiritualism.
A séance or seance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word séance comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma". In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits. In modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance.
The Fox sisters were three sisters from Rochester, New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism: Leah, Margaretta, and Catherine Fox. The two younger sisters used "rappings" to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.
In Spiritualism, paranormal literature and some religions, materialization is the creation or appearance of matter from unknown sources. The existence of materialization has not been confirmed by laboratory experiments. Numerous cases of fraudulent materialization demonstrations by mediums have been exposed.
Daniel Dunglas Home was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His biographer Peter Lamont opines that he was one of the most famous men of his era. Harry Houdini described him as "one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his type and generation" and "the forerunner of the mediums whose forte is fleecing by presuming on the credulity of the public." Home conducted hundreds of séances, which were attended by many eminent Victorians. There have been eyewitness accounts by séance sitters describing conjuring methods and fraud that Home may have employed.
Mediumship is the pseudoscientific practice of mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija. The practice is associated with Spiritualism and Spiritism. A similar New Age practice is known as channeling.
The College of Psychic Studies is a non-profit organisation based in South Kensington, London. It is dedicated to the study of psychic and spiritualist phenomena.
Florence Eliza Cook was a medium who claimed to materialise a spirit, "Katie King". The question of whether the spirit was real or a fraud was a notable public controversy of the mid-1870s. Her abilities were endorsed by Sir William Crookes but many observers were skeptical of Crookes's investigations, both at the time and subsequently.
In spiritualism, ectoplasm, also known as simply ecto, a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums. It was coined in 1894 by psychical researcher Charles Richet. Although the term is widespread in popular culture, there is no scientific evidence that ectoplasm exists and many purported examples were exposed as hoaxes fashioned from cheesecloth, gauze or other natural substances.
Estelle Roberts was a British Spiritualist medium.
William Stainton Moses was an English cleric and spiritualist medium. He promoted spirit photography and automatic writing, and co-founded what became the College of Psychic Studies. He resisted scientific examination of his claims, which have generally been demolished.
Spiritualism is a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at least two fundamental substances, matter and spirit. This very broad metaphysical distinction is further developed into many and various forms by the inclusion of details about what spiritual entities exist such as a soul, the afterlife, spirits of the dead, deities and mediums; as well as details about the nature of the relationship between spirit and matter. It may also refer to the philosophy, doctrine, or religion pertaining to a spiritual aspect of existence.
Mme. d'Esperance was an English spiritualist medium who was exposed as a fraud.
Trevor Henry Hall (1910–1991) was a British author, surveyor, and sceptic of paranormal phenomena. Hall made controversial claims regarding early members of the Society for Psychical Research. His books caused a heated controversy within the parapsychology community.
William Eglinton (1857–1933), also known as William Eglington was a British spiritualist medium who was exposed as a fraud.
Agnes Elisabeth Guppy-Volckman was a British spiritualist medium.
Vice admiral William Usborne Moore also known as W. Usborne Moore was a British naval commander, psychical researcher and spiritualist.
Archibald Campbell Holms most well known as A. Campbell Holms was a Scottish shipbuilding expert and spiritualist.
This article is a chronological index of some of the main events in the prehistory and history of Spiritism, covering events from the 16th century - starting with the emergence of Spiritism in 1857 with the release of The Spirits' Book - until the end of the 20th century.
↑ Brock, William Hodson (2008). William Crookes (1832-1919) and the commercialization of science. Ashgate Publishing. p.181. ISBN0-7546-6322-1.
↑ Owen, Alex (2004). The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p.67. ISBN0-226-64205-4.
↑ Tromp, Marlene (2007). Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p.37. ISBN0-7914-6740-6.
↑ Stein, Gordon (1993). The sorcerer of kings: the case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. pp.40–41. ISBN0-87975-863-5.
↑ Lyons, Sherrie Lynne (2009). Species, serpents, spirits, and skulls: science at the margins of the Victorian age. SUNY Press. p.100. ISBN1-4384-2797-2.
Blavatsky, H. P., ISIS Unveiled, Theosophy Trust, 2006, p.42
Crookes, William. 1874. "Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritual during the Years 1870-1873." Quarterly Journal of Science.January 1874.
Hall, Trevor H. (1963). The spiritualists: the story of Florence Cook and William Crookes. Helix Press.
Hoover, Stephanie (2013) Philadelphia Spiritualism and the Curious Case of Kate King. History Press.
Lehman, Amy (2009). Victorian women and the theatre of trance: mediums, spiritualists and mesmerists in performance. McFarland. p.166. ISBN0-7864-3479-1.
Noakes, Richard. "Instruments to Lay Hold of Spirits." Bodies/Machines. BERG: Oxford, 2002. ISBN1-85973-690-4
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