In Gilded Age Washington, D.C., séances and Ouija boards weren’t just parlor tricks — they were part of a craze that swept through society’s highest circles, captivating the city’s elite in ways both strange and revealing. To get a deep dive into this mystical era, City Cast DC sat down with historian Mark Benbow — and he’s naming names.
The Rise of Spiritualism
Séances swept the nation beginning in the 1840s, but found a particular foothold in D.C.’s gilded parlors. Spiritualism is believed to have been started with the Fox Sisters in New York, who claimed to be communicating with the spirit of a murdered man. At first, mediums communicated with spirits through knocks and whispers in the dark. As more women and mediums joined the movement, the claims became more elaborate, including supposed levitating tables and musical instruments playing themselves.
“This really was a movement dominated by women,” Benbow says. “This was a sphere where women were accepted, as this was legitimate, where they could be leaders.”
Often barred from public life, women became powerful mediums, hosting sessions that promised to carry through messages from lost loved ones. In particular, the far-away deaths of thousands in the Civil War created a space for people to “talk” with their loved ones. By the early 20th century, there were roughly a thousand licensed mediums and fortune tellers in the nation’s capital, according to Benbow.
Can mediums speak to the dead? Many of D.C.’s powerful elite sure thought, or hoped so. (Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images)
Washington Politics Meets the Paranormal
Many first ladies were influential supporters of spiritualism. Mary Todd Lincoln famously held séances in the White House after the death of her son Willie in 1862, hoping to communicate with her child. Florence Harding, who was First Lady from 1921 to 1923, was also known to be a big believer. But Benbow says that although it was a popular practice among Washington’s elite ladies, it wasn’t something you’d talk a lot about in public.
Despite the secrecy, the city’s elite flocked to mediums, whose client lists included senators’ wives and ambassadors. Even the skeptical Harry Houdini couldn’t sway true believers, as D.C.’s high society found solace — and sometimes scandal — around the spirit table.
➕ Want more ghost stories in the halls of power? For more stories of mysterious predictions, congressional clashes, and the fall of spiritualism, tune into the full episode of City Cast DC — if you dare 🧟
