hello again, Sara, all, the final installment of this wild tangled trail. Sara Thejls <[log in to unmask]>: >> I have a student who would like to write a >> paper on the history and use of the ouija board, <snip> it appears that the history of the ORIGIN of the Ouija board has been mapped out pretty thoroughly by collectors of the boards and aficionados of talking board or spirit board history, who have websites and are about to be or have publishing books with much promise (more about those below). > > but he has a problem of finding any relevant > > literature and I haven't come across > > anything myself. <snip> this should conclude my posting on the topic after having acquired two books of import to the subject and examined what i had of relevance in occult bibliographies. if i get one or more of the others listed in this thread of relevance i'll provide my reflections on them. [log in to unmask]: > "Occult America: The Secret History of How > Mysticism Shaped Our Nation, by Mitch Horowitz. Bantam Books, 2009; 291 pages. ISBN: 978-0-553-80675-5 http://tinyurl.com/googlebooks-occult-america "Though patented and sold as entertainment, Ouija was no ordinary fad. It was, in fact, a homemade device concocted by nineteenth-century American Spiritualists who, from the earliest days of their movement, yearned to make talking with the dead as natural as dinnertime conversation. Whether the object of fear or fascination, Ouija proved the most enduring symbol of their success." pages 67, Horowitz. this is from a chapter on Ouija called "Don't Try This At Home: Ouija and the Selling of Spiritualism". it is a helpful brief description of Spiritualism and the history of Ouija in America and provides a starting point in a popular vein to discover numerous sources, which i will do below. these sources are mentioned by Horowitz, but you have to do the fingerwork to follow up on where he is drawing out his data for his interesting text. for example, he credits "historians/curators Robert Murch and Eugene Orlando for their insights into Ouija and their intellectual doggedness in tracking down its history. Murch has tirelessly traced relations among Ouija's investors. Orlando and historian John B. Buescher provided references to the 'lost link' article from the *New York Daily Tribune*. Fuld is quoted from 'William Fuld Made $1,000,000 on Ouija but Has No Faith in It,' Baltimore *Sun*, 7/4/20." Horowitz, pp. 263-264 Chapter Four notes. the 'lost link' article to which he refers is mentioned in his text proper: "A Mysterious Talking Board and Table Over Which Northern Ohio is Agitated" *New York Daily Tribune*, 3/28/1886.* which predates the patent by 4 years and featured a photograph of a rectangular talking board Horowitz describes as "the spitting image of Ouija". (* - the Murch bio of E. C. Reiche, see below, has the title slightly different: "The New Planchette. A Mysterious Talking Board and Table Over Which Northern Ohio is Agitated".) in Horowitz's text he mentions Orlando critiquing academic sources on Ouija and pointing out "'the one recurrent quote found in almost every academic article on the Ouija board.'" they reproduce it here, from Lewis Spence: "As an invention it is very old. It was in use in the days of Pythagoras, about 540 B.C. According to a French historical account of the philosopher's life, his sect held frequent seances or circles at which 'a mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audienceas being revelations supposedly from the unseen world.'" "Encyclopedia of Occultism", by Lewis Spence, 1920. you can find it here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/googlebooks-spence-ouija Horowitz reports Orlando's evaluation that "the story presents two problems: The 'French historical account' is never identified, and the Pythagorean scribe Philalaus lived not in Pythagoras's time but in the following century." quotes from Horowitz, p. 71. at this point i would like to intrude to bring up a source that was mentioned in this email list, in this thread, that i generally like, but which at times has problems as it reproduces errors with insufficient scrutiny: J. Gordon Melton's "Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology". in the entry _Ouija Board_, Melton reproduces Spence almost word-for-word, without credit to Spence, repeating these apparently unfounded legends or speculation (perhaps Gruss had it word for word without proper attribution? no matter, Cornelius is not far off of this also, see below). Melton's encyclopedia has: --------------------------------------------- "It is an ancient invention: a similar device was used in the days of Pythagora, about 540 B.C.E. According to a French historical account of the philosopher's life, his sect held seances or circles at 'a mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs, which the philosopher and his pupil, Philolaus, interpreted to the audience as being revelations supposedly from the unseen world." "... "_Sources:_ "Gruess [sic], Edmond G., *The Ouija Board: Doorway to the Occult*. Chicago: Moody Press, 1975. "White, Stewart Edward. *The Betty Book*. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1937." ----------------------------------------------- "Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology: A Compendium of Information on the Occult Sciences, Magic, Demonology, Superstitions, Spiritism, Mysticism, Metaphysics, Psychical Science, and Parapsychology, with Biographical and Bibliographical Notes and Comprehensive Indexes", Volume Two M-Z and Indexes, edited by J. Gordon Melton, Gale Research, 1996; pp. 965-966; ISBN: 0-8103-9487-1 (Volume 2). =============================================== Horowitz goes on to some depth description of Ouija's importance in its influence on the creation of "The Changing Light at Sandover" by American poet James Merrill and mentions movies and other things with Ouija themes. all in all, Occult America is a very helpful resource. for those interested in the history of Ouija in particular, however, especially its origin and patenting, Horowitz passes on a clarity for many of the mysteries inherent to the board, obtained from Murch/Orlando/Buescher. "The conventional history [that Fuld 'invented' Ouija around 1890] is wrong. "The patent for a 'Ouija or Egyptian luck-board' was filed on May 28, 1890, by Baltimore resident and patent attorney Elijah H. Bond, who assigned the rights to two city businessmen, Charles W. Kennard and William H. A. Maupin. The patent was granted on February 10, 1891, and so was born the Ouija-brand talking board. "...The Kennard Novelty Company of Baltimore employed a teenage varnisher who helped run shop operations, and this was William Fuld. ... a separate patent -- this time for an improved planchette -- was filed by a nineteen-year-old Flud. In years to come, it was Fuld who would take over the novelty firm and affix his name to every board." Horowitz, p. 69. with that, and the mention of the 'lost link', Horowitz passes on the map of Ouija's origins and places some important high points of its history before us. his sources are mentioned but not in a manner that easily allows us to FIND them. in fact, this may be a general criticism of Horowitz and his methods: that his 'familiar' or 'tabletop' text and its sourcing is informal and leaves pieces but nothing complete in the way of source referrals or indicators to follow it out (he could easily have provided URLs on his sources, as i will do below, but he did not, for some reason). for that we must turn to *Google*. after some searching online using Horowitz's text for key terms, i found the following references to historical sources on Ouija, followed by a reference or two, followed by authors previously mentioned: ========================================== Today's Ouija/Talking Board Experts 1) Eugene Orlando 1a) Museum of Talking Board Curator it appears that the Museum of Talking Boards is entirely Mr. Orlando's project. on Horowitz's web page, Horowitz writes the following: "At his online Museum of Talking Boards, Ouija collector and chronicler Eugene Orlando posts an 1886 article from the New-York Daily Tribune (as reprinted that year in a Spiritualist monthly, The Carrier Dove) describing the breathless excitement around the new-fangled alphabet board and its message indicator. ... This was a full four years before the first Ouija patent was filed. Obviously Bond, Kennard, and their associates were capitalizing on an invention not conceiving of one." ----------------------------------------------- -- Mitch Horowitz - Ouija: A History http://www.mitchhorowitz.com/ouija.html (accessed 10/17/09) =============================================== quite a bit of the text on this page is the same as, or largely resembles and may be a variant or initial version of, his "Occult America" text. you can easily read this and get a good preview, or compare it with the googlebooks version. 1b) Contacting Mr. Orlando if your student wants to track down the sources that Mitch Horowitz did, then he will need to contact Eugene Orlando, who likely has numerous email addresses associated with his online museum. here is the data i found from Alexa for him: Eugene Orlando P. O. Box 723 Corte Madera, CA 94976 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] and from PopCult Magazine: -------------------------------------- "The 54-year-old private investor ... has not only placed his collection of talking boards online, but he has also exhaustively researched their history and cultural influences. From his oddity-festooned home office in San Francisco..., Orlando has created a sterling resource on what is usually considered to be a mysterious subject." and "All the boards, planchettes, and other apparatus are from my collection with the exception of a very few and they are duly noted. I've written all the text, taken all the pictures, and done all the graphic design." -- Eugene Orlando, quoted in PopCult Magazine article on Museum website, copyright 2002 http://www.popcultmag.com/passingfancies/websiteoftheweek/talkingboards/talkingboards1.html (accessed 10/17/09) 1c) Future Projects see below under Robert Murch! -------------------------------------------- 2) Robert L. Murch, Jr. searching for Robert Murch yielded a LOT of data, and this is especially pertinent to the history of Ouija in particular and talking boards in general. 2a) Maintainer of WilliamFuld.com this website is a fount of information and will likely be raw materials for the book that Mr. Murch and Mr. Orlando are working on (see below). Horowitz accurately describes Murch as doing research on the people associated with the Ouija patent, and this domain presents bios on most if not all of them. Mr. Murch's bio page: WilliamFuld.com -- Robert Murch http://www.williamfuld.com/robertmurchbiography.html 2c) Collector of Spirit Boards and Noted Expert the above is also the index page of what may be found at robertmurch.com, and mentions that he is the co-founder with Gary Halteman, of Spirited Ventures, Inc. (a spirit board manufacturer), where we can learn of his collection of over 300 different variations of talking boards and his 1999 employment by Dreamworks "as a spirit board expert and vendor in the film 'What Lies Beneath' starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford." Cryptique -- Spirited Ventures http://www.cryptique.com/spiritedventures.html (accessed 10/17/09) also see this very thorough patent history: WilliamFuld.com -- William Fuld's Ouija Patents and Trademarks http://www.williamfuld.com/ouija_patentsandtrademarks_williamfuld.html 2d) Future Projects both also mention the following: "...in the summer of 2008, Robert Murch began working with Michael Albert, President of Papa's Toys, who currently manufactures the Canadian Ouija board. With the help of Albert, The Toronto Public Library, and the McMaster Library, Murch has successfully traced the Ouija through it's many Canadian locations and document it's development throughout Canada. Without this information much of the Ouija's Canadian past would be lost. "Robert L Murch Jr., resides in Boston, Massachusetts. He is presently working with Baltimore city officials, the Maryland Historical Society, The Baltimore Museum of Industry, and the Maryland State Archives to preserve their Ouija legacy and document their favorite son, William Fuld. While he continues his research he is currently working with Eugene Orlando from the Museum of Talking Boards to co-write a book about the history of the Ouija board." 2e) Contacting Robert Murch, Jr. 617-291-7451 http://www.williamfuld.com/contact.html and note his references! RobertMurch.com -- References http://www.robertmurch.com/references.html -------------------------------------------- 3) Dr. John B. Buescher I cannot find much about his latest activities, but i did find * two books on the history of Spiritualism 1 published by Skinner and 1 by the University of Notre Dame, and * he used to have a very well-regarded website at spirithistory.com (available as late as August 4, 2008 (see the web.archive at: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.spirithistory.com for a TREMENDOUS cache of data we can only hope does not drop off of their holdings or goes into print from Dr. Buescher! I explored the cache for an hour or two, fascinated, with gasps and laments that this wasn't still online!). the two books i found that were pertinent were: 3a) The Other Side of Salvation The Other Side of Salvation: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious Experience by John B. Buescher http://www.uua.org/publications/skinnerhouse/browseskinner/titles/20434.shtml (accessed 10/17/09) Review here: -- http://www.seekbooks.com.au/book/The-Other-Side-of-Salvation/isbn/9781558964488.htm and i did not see one mention of the Ouija or of talking/spirit boards, but it would not surprise me at all if they were mentioned in this text. 3b) The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear "The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear: Agitator for the Spirit Land", by John Benedict Buescher, University of Notre Dame Press, 2006; 384 pages; ISBN 978-0-268-02200-6. http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01101 (accessed 10/17/09) I did not see a mention of Ouija or of talking or spirit boards, but it is possible that it is featured in this text, considering what a VERY unusual person Spear seems to have been. 3c) Other Information From Dr. Buescher scanning through the latest version of Dr. Buescher's website, it appears he was and probably still is dedicated to providing online reference to those who have an interest in Spiritualism. a glance at this bibliography makes clear that he is an amazing resource on the subject: Books, Articles and Links by Spiritualists or About Spiritualism http://web.archive.org/web/20080612074031/www.spirithistory.com/books.html (accessed 10/17/09) obviously Dr. Buescher is a GOOD reference. 3d) Other Projects (Future?) Dr. Buescher more recently published something of definite interest to occultists/magicians: "Aquarian Evangelist: The Age of Aquarius as It Dawned in the Mind of Levi Dowling (Theosophical History Occasional Papers, Volume XI)" which was listed at Amazon published in 2008. searching around on its title i also found "An Interview with Dr. John B. Buescher" http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/jbuescher_intrvw_apr2008.asp Biographical on Dr. Buescher: http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Buescher_John_2431281.aspx (accessed 10/17/09) -------------------------------------------- 4) Philip Orbanes > a history of games and ouija search turned up > nothing of value to my knowledge. my Parlett > "The Oxford History of Board Games" does not > recognize Ouija as a game at all and so does > not contain an entry to my read. the only one > (without many index entries on Ouija) was: > "The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers, > from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit by > Philip E. Orbanes. I'm also getting this text > and will provide feedback on it when it arrives. it turns out that this is a good reference on the general subject and has some very cool tidbits on the history of games and Parker Bros specifically. the author consults correspondence and tapes from the company's executives of the time, and upon occasion makes references outside of this (within the Ouija section of Chapter 5 noting once, for example, to the Museum of Talking Boards!!). "With $975,000 in cash and Channing Bacall's blessing, [Robert Barton, president of Parker Brothers at the time, in the late 1960] made the most expensive product acquisition in the firm's history. He purchased the rights for the venerable *Ouija* board from the sons of William Fuld, who had popularized this "Mystic Oracle" four decades earlier. [AUTHOR's NOTE: Robert B. M. Barton, interview by Professor John Fox, audiocassette, 27 December 1986.] "...*Ouija* would outsell *Monopoly* in 1967 -- 2.3 million copies to 2 million. [AUTHOR'S NOTE: Preston Gise, Parker Brothers -- Acquisition Review memorandum for General Mills, 16 January 1968.] "...In 1891, Elijah Bond received a U.S. patent on the forerunner of the *Ouija* board. But the following year, 1892, Fuld purchased Bond's rights in the patent and applied for an improvement. (Evidence of the origins of *Ouija* devices can be found in ancient Greece and China. The Romans were also known to have *Ouija*-like devices.) Notwithstanding where it may have originated, Fuld was bent on exploiting his new acquisition. He founded a firm known as the Southern Novelty Company in Baltimore, Maryland. Years later, he changed its name to the Baltimore Talking Board Company and began to make 'Oriole' Talking Boards and *planchettes* ...." -------------------------------------------------- "The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit", by Philip E. Orbanes, Harvard Business School Publishing Compmany, 2004; pp. 145-146; 229n32, 229n33; ISBN: 1-59139-269-1. ================================================== 5) J. Edward Cornelius noted in another post was Jerry Cornelius' "Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board", which is primarily (8 of 10 chapters) a book about Aleister Crowley, but has some references on Ouija in its notes to chapters 1 and 2. my Brother Cornelius cites both the Stoker Hunt book and the text by Gruss and Hotchkiss. in Chapter 1 he provides many pop-culture references featuring the Ouija, and in Chapter 2 he begins to attempt to cover its history. he mentions Chinese sand diviners, then repeats Lewis Spence almost word-for-word without crediting him: "In Greece, circa 540 B.C., the philosopher Pythagoras was said to use a special talking table on wheels. With hands placed upon the table it would move toward different signs and symbols. Pythagoras, or his pupil Philolaus, would then interpret the message to the waiting audience as being divine revelations supposedly from an unseen world." page 12. more importantly, Brother Cornelius points out another dimension to the Ouija origins (repeating an 'E.C. Reichie' legend?): "The earliest possible facts upon which historians can agree about the origins of the "Ouija" as we know it today center around E.C. Reiche, a coffin maker in Chesterson, Maryland. It is generally believed that he had a strong interest in spiritism and table-tapping due to his unique trade. He wanted to create a simple means to communicate with the deceased more for personal reasons rather than something for the public. Initially he 'noticed sympathetically that a large table was a heavy thing for a frail spirit to juggle about {so} he devised a little table.' [AUTHOR'S NOTE citing Gruss/Hotchkiss and mentioning that "Original quote from *The Literary Digest*, July 3, 1920, p. 66.] When he teamed up with his two friends, Elijah J. Bond and Charles Kennard, they put their heads together and the three of them created the final design for the talking board. However, no written records survive which allow these facts to be easily verified. At this point we can only speculate as to what might have inspired these three gentlemen or from where their original design might have come." ----------------------------------------- "Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board", by J. Edward Cornelius, Feral House 2005; p. 19; ISBN: 978-1-932595-10-4. ========================================= something of the role that Ernest Charles Reiche played in the lives of those who originated the Ouija board is described by Robert Murch on his numerous biographical pages at WilliamFuld.com (or in this case at one of the many extended pages as in this example at http://www.ecreiche.com/ ). Murch explains that "E. C. Reiche is first mentioned in an article which appeared in the *New York World Magazine* written by Edgar Goodman on May 23rd 1920. [ http://www.williamfuld.com/ouija_articles_05231920.html ] This was later retold in 'Ouija, Ouija, Who's Got The Ouija?' in the *Literary Digest* on July 3rd 1920. [ http://www.williamfuld.com/ouija_articles_07031920.html ] The article presents two theories on who invented the Ouija board. It claims that Col. Washington Bowie testified in court that either E. C. Reiche [note: spelled "Reichie" -- ny] was the actual inventor or it could be attributed to Charles Kennard. However, after careful review of the court transcripts we find no mention of Reiche or any testimony of Col. Washington Bowie for that matter." ---------------------------------------- -- E. C. Reiche's Official Biography http://www.ecreiche.com/ (accessed 10/17/09); copyright 2007 ======================================== Cornelius also references *The Baltimore Sun* article covered by Mitch Horowitz, and helpfully includes these other articles, making note of them in his Ouija history as it was seen by the American court system: -- "Claimant to Title of Ouija Board Craze Dies," *The Baltimore Sun*, November 19, 1939. -- "Wm. Fuld is Killed in Fall from Roof, Support gives way while he is helping erect flagpole atop factory," *The Baltimore Sun*, February 25, 1927. -- "Monopoly on Ouija," *The New York Times*, February 24, 1966. -- "Nothing Occult in Ouija, Federal Court Rules. Boards are Taxable, according to Opinion Handed Down by Judge Ros," *The Baltimore Sun*, June 2, 1921. -- "Ouija Board is Taxable, Appellate Court Says. Judge Woods, in Richmond, Hands Down Opinion Affirming Baltimore Judgmeent," *The Baltimore Sun*, February 10, 1922. -- "The Supreme Court Refuses to Say What It Thinks of Ouija," *The Baltimore Sun*, June 6, 1922. nagasiva yronwode ([log in to unmask]), Director YIPPIE*! -- http://www.yronwode.org/ ----------------------------------------------------- *Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology ----------------------------------------------------- ps -- I may make one final post (an appendix) which will be a listing of all known manufacturers of talking / spirit boards, their dates of operation, and what they have sold, inclusive of what is for sale right now! that may take me a while, tho. perhaps at that point i'll attempt a key term set for research revised with all of the data and terms now disclosed. END