Free and open to the public.
Presentation by Jason Smiley:
The presentation is about the Eddy family of Chittenden, Vermont (Rutland County). During the mid to late 1800’s they became world-renowned as spirit mediums with the alleged ability of generating full-bodied spirit manifestations or “materializations” of the departed. People traveled from all over the world to Chittenden to witness these phenomena for themselves. Some came with the hope of seeing and speaking to their own departed family members. Others came as skeptics, hoping to debunk the family’s alleged powers as “humbug”. By 1874, the family was so well-known that Chittenden started being referred to as “Spirit Vale”. To this day, there are many who believe that the family had genuine supernatural abilities. The family and the story has ties to P.T. Barnum, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Queen Victoria, and President Lincoln.