From Elements of Physical Geography by John Brocklesby, 1870.

An illustration from an 1888 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine.

From The Ingoldsby Legends by Thomas Ingoldsby, 1881.

Here's a spooky moment from Moreton, or the Doomed House, 1847.

We're honored that acclaimed poet Gary Barwin has offered a foreword to our new guide to The Care and Feeding of a Spirit Board.

The phrase "ghosts of dead toys" delivers just one Google result from 1908.  Our illustration appears fours years earlier, in St. Nicholas magazine, 1904.

From The Science of Eugenics and Sex Life, 1914.

Here's a precursor to William Castle's 13 Ghosts, from The Rhododendron of Appalachian State University, 1922.

On the edge of understanding
Below, above our reason's sway
Is a ghostly world extending
Into cool infinity.
Hosts invisible protect
The path beyond the intellect.
—Theodor Däubler, "The Sleep-Walker," quoted in Ernst Kreuder's The Attic Pretenders

"Passing through ghostly villages." From A Wheel to Moscow and Back by Robert L. Jefferson, 1895.

A Perfect Little Butterfly, 1895.

"He clambered forward in the boat, and stared at the passing multitude."  From The Marriage of Esther by Guy Newell Boothby, 1895.

"We're just ordinary people who don't have any supernatural powers ... and don't want any."  A still from William Castle's 13 Ghosts.

From Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Macaulay, 1904.

These apparitions appear in St. Nicholas magazine.

An illustration from Ballads and Songs by William Makepeace Thackeray (1896).  The caption reads: "She comes from the past and revisits my room."

From The New Budget of Recitations, 1854.

An illustration from Peter Ibbetson by George Du Maurier (1892).  The caption reads: "To the winter palace."

"Mesmeric Ghosts": an illustration from The Children's Fairy History of England by Forbes Edward Winslow (1889).

Yes -- here's a precursor to the Pac-Man ghost surrounded by -- what else? -- pac-dots/pellets, from Histoire de Saint-Chamond by James Jean Pierre Condamin, 1890.