Mary's Charlatans by Memoirs of Henry Villard

[BettyO]

Spiritualism was very, very popular from the middle half of the 19th Century on through the first half of the 20th Century. The Fox sisters in upstate New York started the craze when they began "playing games" with table tilting and asking spirits questions with a plachette and an inverted wine glass - early forerunner of the Ouji Board. The craze caught on; especially when a Mr. William Mumler, an early photographer, got into the act with his "Spirit Photography." Mary Lincoln fell for that as well, particularly after Mr. Lincoln died. Mumler knew how to manipulate photography and double exposures to produce "spirit images" on photographs which were considered quite a phenomenon until he was later exposed as a fraud.

I don't think that this meant that the Lincolns were "spiritualists" in the strict sense that they seriously practiced. They may have believed as did a great many Americans during this time period. I also think that all persons like to believe that yes, our souls do go on; and yes that in our private times that we can communicate. I know I'd LOVE to see my dad again! So yes, I would guess that Mr. Lincoln would, as a grieving parent, sometimes "speak" or find himself attempting to "communicate" with Willie, either consciously or unconsciously. But I don't think that would make him a spiritualist in the strict sense of the word.