Chewing the Rag: Antique Mounted "Ectoplasm" Spirit Photo with Two Women. late 19th/early 20th c. New York artist It’s quite a rare deck

It’s quite a rare deck

cutting oats

and it is one I handle pretty carefully as I believe it is really very old and somewhat fragile

which came into popular use in the 1870s

Boston Museum of Fine Art

Chewing the Rag: Antique Mounted "Ectoplasm" Spirit Photo with Two Women. late 19th/early 20th c. New York artist It’s quite a rare deckA very curious one, which I think one could write a whole book about! I am no expert on "spirit " photograph, but this seems to be an example though perhaps a very self aware or even tongue in cheek one specifically portraying (via a length of what I presume is cheesecloth stretching between the mouths of these two women) an "ectoplasmic" event. And then above the mounted photo, written in ink: "chewing the rag," an expression, English in origin and