Spirit Photography
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Spirit photography became popular in the 19th Century when a man called William Mumler claimed to have taken the first spirit photograph. It was said that departed spirits can have their images imprinted onto pictures.
These spirits would appear as translucent and pale looking entities in photographs. During the Civil War, bereaved families used spirit photography as a form of proof that their loved ones that died during the war still continued their existence in some fashion.
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The popularity of spirit photography came with its critics as well. One of the more prominent ones were P.T. Barnum. He felt that the spirit photographers were taking advantage of people whose judgement was clouded by grief. On the month of April, 1869, William Mumler was brought to trial for fraud. Barnum testified against him. Prior to the trial, Barnum told a respectable photographer to prepare a photo (as shown above). In the photo, the spirit image of Abraham Lincoln floats behind Barnum's right shoulder. Barnum wanted to prove his point that spirit photographs can be produced by any competent photographer.
The Monkey Hoax
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This foetus-like body was discovered along a highway in Georgia in 1953 by three young boys. The three boys claimed that they witnessed a red flying saucer and three little aliens circling it. Two of them left with saucer, leaving one of them behind. (Picture above)
For a period of time the police were certain that this was an extraterrestrial being, until a few days later, the police confirmed that it was nothing more than a shaved Capuchin monkey with its tail chopped off.
When confronted, the three young boys confessed that it was a bet made during a card game by one of the boys, who wagered his mates that he could make the headlines in the local paper in a week's time. So he bought a monkey, drugged it and made it look like what it is now.
Till this day, the dead monkey is preserved in the Georgia Crime Laboratory.
The Loch Ness Monster
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The Sympsychograph
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In 1896, the picture above was published on the "Popular Science Monthly" by scientist David Starr Jordan. According to David, the image was produced by a device called the Sympsychograph, which captures images from people's minds and converts them into photographic film. In this case, the person had evidently been thinking of a cat. David meant his claim to be a joke, but hundreds of readers were fooled into believing that the Sympsychograph was a real invention.
Lincoln In His Casket
This picture supposedly shows the dead Lincoln lying in his funeral casket. This picture, and many other similar pictures, circulated after the Civil War. In actual fact, however, the Army did not allow any pictures to be taken of Lincoln in his casket. So whoever it is in the casket is definitely not Lincoln.
Portrait of Lincoln
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Many years after the Civil War, a portrait of Lincoln (left) was placed in many buildings and educational institutions. Elegant as it is, Lincoln did not actually pose for the picture. The original picture belongs to the Southern leader John Calhoun, and Lincoln's head was superimposed into the photograph. Reason for doing so? It was because Lincoln did not have many 'heroic-style' portraits made in his life.
This foetus-like body was discovered along a highway in Georgia in 1953 by three young boys. The three boys claimed that they witnessed a red flying saucer and three little aliens circling it. Two of them left with saucer, leaving one of them behind. (Picture above) 
