Artifacts collected by J.V. Mansfield, the “spirit postmaster” and one of the most famous and controversial mediums of his day. Getting his start as a writing medium in the early 1850s, Mansfield’s greatest claim to famed was his mediumistic service offering to provide answers, from the spirits, to questions sent to him in sealed envelopes that he ostensibly had no way of reading with his mortal eyes. At a buck a piece for the readings and an investment in some well-placed ads in the Spiritualist press, he courted both customers and controversy, and his techniques were not found favorable or genuine by many Spiritualists or the later Seybert Commission. Mansfield was a traveler and collector, and a massive archive of his personal artifacts sold at auction early this year. I was fortunate enough to acquire not only two of Mansfield’s personalized walking sticks, but also a small cigar-box assemblage of collected ephemera: stones from exotic locations, coat buttons from then-famous military leaders, some seashore leavings, and a few original business cards. But, for me, the true prize was the galvanic pendulum, or plumb-bob, shown here. Created with bands of alternating metals, the purpose of such devices was to create a primitive Voltaic pile battery (see Boyd’s Battery pendants or Koons’ Spiritual Machine) that could, it was thought, create conditions to heal, cleanse one’s blood, or charge items or atmospheres to make spirit communion more conductive—pretty much whatever you needed, such we’re the wonders of low-voltage electricity. Whether this item was created as an aid in magnetic healing or as a galvanic dowsing artifact is unknown, but it had purpose, and it was important to Mansfield. I love it. So! That’s a thing, and a beauty. Still need to get it properly shadowboxed. Hey—y’all check out my Atlas Obscura + Weird Homes Tour thing on my stories today. Going to do a sort of show-and-tell of artifacts like this one Tuesday, and going to pull out some real rarities. Tune in! #jvmansfield #spiritpostmaster #galvanic #pendulum #dowsing #plumbbob #divination #mediumship #occult #radiesthesie #radiestesia #spiritualism #spiritualist https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-qfFfF-MK/?igshid=11p7w3n29ty89
