An illustration of a spirit double from an 1889 issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly magazine.  The caption reads: "It seemed almost like a luminous mist floating in through the window—and out of that mist slowly grew my own face and form."

Dedicated to Clint Marsh.

~ Amorphous Apparitions ~

Portrait from Samuel Daniel.

“His pale face visible as only a white smudge.” —Peter Straub, Ghost Story

~ Classic Sightings ~

A cemetery as it appears on the other side,

from Memoir of Captain M. M. Hammond.

via The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

Here's another type of ghost in the scanning machine, presented in honor of Gordon Meyer.  This image recalls the double-exposure spirit photography of the 19th century.  This particular ghost materialized in the Google Books scan of Wilfred Montressor: or, The Secret Order of the Seven: A Romance of Life in the New York Metropolis (1865).  We're especially tickled by the ghost of the huge letter Y.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Memoir of George Edmund Street.

In this haunting, the ghost appears twice, once in a gray shadow and once in a blue mist.

To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Memoir of William Ellery Channing.

This intriguing ghost portrait both mirrors and brings color to the halo of the original.

To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Memoir of Rachel Hicks.

Note that the Rachel Hicks appears more jovial in spectral form.

To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel.

It’s not every day we meet a spirit who has been transferred to the University of Washington library.

To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke.

“A poet’s ghost is the only one that survives for his fellow-mortals, after his bones are in the dust.” —Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home

To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Melba: A Biography.

“In . . . a face half-clear and half-blurry, he sees the blue reflection of the ghost.” —Charles L. Grant, Shadows 8

To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Frontispiece from The Eagle’s Shadow.

Fashionistas will note that hemlines are shorter on the Other Side.  To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from The Autobiography of William Jerdan.

In this haunting, the ghost of “the deeply lamented” L.E.L. appears no fewer than eight times, courtesy of the scanners at Google Books.  To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Frontispiece from William Douglas O’Connor’s The Ghost.

The implication seems to be this: spirit is a shadow in the material realm, and material is a shadow in the spirit realm.  To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

From William Douglas O’Connor’s The Ghost.

The left image depicts the ghost as it appears in the material realm, while the right image depicts the ghost as it appears in the immaterial realm. And so we learn that ghosts are even more nebulous in the netherworld.  To understand this phenomenon, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.