An original 1872 print of Mary Todd Lincoln that purports to show the ghost of her assassinated husband, President Abraham Lincoln, standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders is now on display in Indiana.
The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne has the picture as a part of an exhibit sponsored by the Lincoln Financial Foundation,
USA Today reports.
The image was taken by William Mumler, whom the report describes as an "infamous spirit photographer," seven years after the president's assassination.
Spiritualism was very much a religion in America at the time, USA Today reports. It was practiced by many who had lost loved ones in the Civil War and to disease.
Mary Lincoln had also lost two of her three sons. Her mental and physical health declined in the years after her husband's killing before she died in 1882 at age 63.
Mumler began taking pictures — photography was relatively new at the time — in Boston and later moved to New York.
Critics, however, claimed he was a fraud, and Mumler was brought to trial, USA Today reports.
The picture, most likely a double exposure, could not be proven — and Mumler was acquitted.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.