Florence Cook and the Katie King séances

Record summary

Florence Cook was associated with séances in which a purported materialized spirit calling herself Katie King appeared. Physicist William Crookes reported investigating Cook and photographing or observing the figure, while later critics alleged impersonation and inadequate safeguards. The episode is valuable for studying materialization mediumship, photographic evidence, gendered authority and the boundary between scientific testimony and séance performance. Researchers should compare Crookes’s publications with contemporaneous criticism and later historical analyses of the identity of Katie King.