Ghosts of Stockings

Source: A Discovery Concerning Ghosts; George Cruikshank

In an era when spirit photography was popular, George Cruikshank wrote an essay, mocking the mediums’ claims to be able to contact the dead. According to Cruikshank, if there are spirits of people, then for them to be able ‘to present themselves before company’, there must also be: ‘…the spirits of trousers, spirits of gaiters, waistcoats, neckties, spirits of buckles and shoes and knees; spirit of buttons, “bright gilt buttons”; spirits of caps, bonnets, gowns and petticoats; spirits of hoops and crinolines, of ghost’s stockings’.

A Discovery Concerning Ghosts; George Cruikshank; 1863