Realism was exceptionally well suited (heh) for elaborate descriptions of spectral clothing.

Are the departed watching over us, and if so, what are they wearing? Victorian spiritualists believed that ghosts could be captured on film.

Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan was photographed emitting ectoplasm, supposedly proof of her ability to contact the dead.

In 1940s America, two folklorists undertook the task of collecting and studying the "modern" ghost stories of their time.

An essay from poet Dorothea Lasky on poetry, ghosts, and the shared imagination.