William H. Mumler

William Howard Mumler (May 1832 - May 16, 1884) was an American engraver and photographer, arguably the first widely known spiritual photographer, a trade that he began practising professionally as a medium in 1861, continuing until he was charged with fraud, conspiracy, and larceny in New York in 1869 and subsequently retired to pursue more conventional photography. It has been proposed by Felicity Hamer that the photography studio where Mumler made his original foray into photography was owned by his wife, Hannah Frances Mumler, mesmeric physician and medium, under the name H. F. Stuart.