W.T.F History

A weekly dose of macabre history — gently pressed into your hands like a haunted educational pamphlet.

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A Spiritualist-era seance photograph of a medium producing ectoplasm
WTF History: What Exactly Is a Ghost Made Of?

Apparently, for a while, the answer was something resembling wet cheesecloth.

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A Georgiana Houghton spirit drawing, 1866
WTF History: The Woman Who Let Ghosts Do the Painting

The dead made me do it.

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A 19th-century illustration of a seance experiment, an instrument sealed in a wire cage beneath a table
WTF History: Ghosts Playing Musical Instruments

So the dead formed a band. No one asked them to.

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A vintage illustration of two men seated at a seance table, hands joined over a slate
WTF History: Spirit Slate Writing

A very good reason to look under the table.

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An 1860s photograph of the Davenport Brothers and their assistants beside the wooden spirit cabinet
WTF History: The Spirit Cabinet

They had two restrained men in a cupboard and hope.

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A 19th-century engraving titled Jugement du cadavre de Formose, showing the exhumed Pope Formosus seated on trial before a church council
WTF History: They Put a Dead Pope on Trial

Sometimes you should leave the dead alone.

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A sepia photograph of an Edwardian woman in a large hat holding a lace fan
WTF History: The Secret Language of Fans

The elaborate secret language was probably less ancient feminine knowledge and more excellent fan marketing.

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A vintage advertisement for Dr. Rose's Arsenic Complexion Wafers
WTF History: Beauty Is Pain, Sometimes Arsenic

Apparently skincare routines become considerably easier when you simply remove the “skin” portion.

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