This was a present from my nephew as I lay in the hospital recovering from broken metatarsals and a sore neck after the extraction of my thyroid and lThis was a present from my nephew as I lay in the hospital recovering from broken metatarsals and a sore neck after the extraction of my thyroid and lymphs nodes that were removed because they were cancerous. It kept me interested which is a high compliment as I had so many other things to think about. It was a tad disjointed as the book covered a lot of territory. As a photographer myself I enjoyed the section on the early days of photography and how it moved from Daguerreotypes to the type of cameras we know now. A large part of the book discusses "Spirit Photographs" which gained popularity during the rise of Spiritualism which gained believers around the time of the Civil War. Spirit Photographs sh0wed the sitters photograph as well as a ghostly image of someone close to the sitter. Were these photographers being fraudulent or were they being honest with their buyers. The answer depends on how the observer felt about Spiritualism. Even though Manseau jumped around these topics, he was interesting and his book is well-researched. I recommend this book to all who are interested in the early days of photography as well as American cultural history....more
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