In the 1850s Britain was hit by an epidemic likened by The Illustrated London News to a ‘grippe or the cholera morbus’. It came from America rather than China and afflicted the mind rather than the body. The craze for table-turning was sparked in Hydesville, New York, in 1848 after two young sisters, Maggie and Kate Fox, claimed to hear mysterious rappings in the floor of the family home and attributed them to a spirit called Mr Splitfoot.
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Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist As Medium is at Drawing Room until 1 November (by timed slot, Wednesday–Sunday). The film Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint will be released in selected cinemas from 8 October.
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