Trinity College, Cambridge, has long been associated with psychical research (as indeed has Cambridge University more widely). In a paper based on a talk given at the Second International Society for Psychical Research Conference, held at Trinity College in March 1978, Alan Gauld began by stating that “There was a time – just about within living memory – when Cambridge, and particularly Trinity, was the undoubted centre of the parapsychological world.” Four years later the SPR was back at Trinity for its Centenary Jubilee Conference, held in conjunction with the Parapsychological Association, reinforcing the relationship between the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and Cambridge.
Significant
members of the SPR associated with Trinity who will be well known to psychical
researchers, and some more widely, include Henry Sidgwick, F W H Myers, Edmund
Gurney, Richard Hodgson, Arthur Balfour, John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh,
Walter Leaf, Arthur Woollgar Verrall, Gerald Balfour, Everard Feilding, J J
Thomson, W H Salter, Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh, C D Broad, A R G Owen,
Peter Fenwick, Brian Josephson and Bernard Carr. Of these, Sidgwick, Myers and
Gurney are particularly notable as the driving force of the SPR in its early
days.
As
an indication of the influence of this group, of these members the following
served terms as president of the SPR:
Henry Sidgwick 1882-1884
and 1888-1892; Frederic Myers 1900; Arthur Balfour 1893; 3rd Baron Rayleigh
1919 (plus the Nobel prize for Physics in 1904); Gerald Balfour 1906-07; W H
Salter 1947-48; 4th Baron Rayleigh 1937-38; C D Broad 1935-36 and 1958-60; and
Bernard Carr 2000-2004. J J Thomson never served as president, but as a
consolation he was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1906.
Now
there is a small exhibition at the Wren Library, Trinity College, from 24 June
to 18 September, Haunted Histories: Trinity and the Search for Life after
Death, 1850-1950. Entry is free, Monday-Friday, 12.00-2.00 pm. It has been
put together by Zoe Zimmer as a trainee librarianship project, and although
occupying only four cases it is worth a visit if one is in the area. The contents
draw on Trinity’s library and archive (the main SPR paper archive is held at
Cambridge University Library) to highlight its holdings on Spiritualism and
psychical research. Some of the publications have been selected as much for
their attractiveness as for their historical value (and are guaranteed to make
the bibliophile salivate), but those on display represent a tiny fraction of
the college’s collection.
The
first case looks at nineteenth-century Spiritualism. As well as contextual
information on the rise of modern Spiritualism after 1848, and noting the
facilitation of its dissemination by the spread of print media, there are
copies of a number of representative books from the period: Benjamin Coleman’s Spiritualism
in America (1861), Samuel Guppy’s Mary Jane; or, Spiritualism Chemically
Explained (1863), J H Powell’s Spiritualism: Its Facts and Phases
(1864), Edward Cox’s Spiritualism Answered by Science (1872), Allan
Kardec’s Experimental Spiritism: The Medium’s Book (1876), and N B
Wolfe’s Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualism (1883).
Case
two contains more manuscript material than books. It covers SPR founders
Sidgwick, Myers and Gurney, all fellows of Trinity, charting their developing
interest in examining Spiritualism prior to the establishment of the SPR in
1882. They were towering figures in the history of the Society, whose like we
will probably not see again, though I doubt they would have appreciated the
caption title ‘supernatural scholars’. Nor would they have been pleased to see
a copy of Trevor Hall’s hatchet job The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney
(1964), open at Gurney’s portrait. A folding double frame contains two
portraits of Myers at different stages of life, the wild young romantic
clutching his head contrasting with the staid serious middle-aged thinker
staring into the distance. A photograph of Sidgwick with his large unkempt
beard completes the triumvirate.
An
1867 letter from Sidgwick to his mother discusses the importance of the study
of Spiritualism, and another of his to her from 1874 describes staying with
Lord Rayleigh (i.e. the third Baron) to meet one of the Fox sisters, who were
such important, if controversial, figures in the development of Spiritualism.
An 1874 letter from Sidgwick to Myers discusses Gurney’s willingness to
participate in an investigation of Spiritualism, and an 1875 letter from the
Master of Trinity, W H Thompson, to Sidgwick, on mourning stationery, says he
will not obstruct Sidgwick’s investigations. The case is completed by a copy of
J J Thomson’s 1936 autobiography Recollections and Reflections, open at
the chapter devoted to psychical research. Thomson had been persuaded by Myers
to attend séances in the 1890s, but had found the results disappointing –
either nothing happened, or there was a strong suspicion of fraud.
The
third case mostly focuses on the SPR, though it fits in a pair of spirit
photographs, taken at a séances attended by Myers, showing crudely executed
extras. A handwritten account of a séances Myers attended, probably in 1875, is
written up in Sidgwick’s hand. Often popular histories of the SPR focus on the
Cambridge connection and omit those outside that circle who also made a
contribution to the SPR’s formation, in order to downplay the Spiritualist
element present in the Society’s first years. Chief among these were Edmund
Dawson Rogers and William Barrett. Here, Rogers is not name-checked but Barrett
is, with a form letter sent by Barrett in December 1881 to Trinity alumnus Lord
Houghton proposing to hold a meeting to discuss the feasibility of an
organisation devoted to the subject; Lord Houghton became a member, one of a
number of eminent individuals.
A
caption describes the foundation, though it states that Sidgwick held the
presidency for 18 years. He died 18 years after the SPR was constituted in
February 1882, in 1900. The first volumes of the SPR’s Proceedings and Journal
(the latter distributed to members only) are shown, and finally the first
volume of the book that immortalised the names of Gurney, Myers and Frank
Podmore: Phantasms of the Living (1886). Gurney died two years later,
robbing psychical research of one of its most significant contributors. A QR
code links to the Cambridge University Library catalogue, mentioning that the
library holds the bulk of the SPR archive (still owned by the SPR).
The
final case brings the story up to the mid-twentieth century. It begins with the
papers of William Henry Salter which he donated to Trinity, dealing with
automatic writing, notably the cross-correspondences. These are interrelated
messages received through mediums working independently, frequently containing
classical allusions. They appear to form a coherent whole only when combined,
indicating the presence of a guiding personality communicating through the
mediums. A 1963 letter from Salter to Broad says he is writing to the Master of
Trinity asking if the college would take charge of his set of volumes of the printed
scripts and papers (it did, fortunately). A 1901 automatic script produced by
Margaret Verrall (the wife of a Trinity fellow and Salter’s mother-in-law) is
shown, along with the portrait of Salter accompanying Broad’s obituary of him,
published in a 1970 issue of the SPR’s Journal. An early volume dealing
with the cross-correspondences, Herbert Saltmarsh’s Evidence of Personal
Survival from Cross-Correspondences (1938) is displayed, along with one of
Broad’s psychical research notebooks.
A
label describes the Perrott-Warrick Fund, administered by Trinity, which
supports psychical research from bequests made by Frank Perrott in 1937 and
Frederic Warrick in 1956. It addresses the areas also covered by the SPR’s two
funds: general psi and the continuation of consciousness after death.
Additionally, both Broad and Warrick donated books to Trinity. Cumulatively,
the bequests and donations made Trinity a significant presence in psychical
research. The exgibition concludes with a long 1945 letter from Warrick to
Broad, and two photographs: a group photograph taken during an invitation-only
psychical research conference held at Newnham in 1955, relevant because of the
presence of Broad, though presumably the college has images taken during the
conferences held at Trinity (one from the 1982 centenary conference would have
been nice), and a portrait of Broad standing in the Great Court at Trinity.
 |
| Folder from the 1982 conference. Author’s collection |
If contemplating a visit, it is worth bearing in mind that the Wren Library is a tourist attraction, and numbers entering are limited – it is after all a working library – so there may be a wait to get in. However, for those not able to attend the exhibition, Zoe Zimmer is planning to digitise it for the library’s website. To anyone who has not been I can recommend the experience, both because it is a beautiful library, and reaching it involves a short walk along the Trinity side of the Cam running along the Backs.
Coincidentally,
a couple of days after my visit I came across an online article by Lydia
Wilson, ‘Parapsychology Is Coming in From the Cold’, with the optimistic
subtitle, ‘The University of Cambridge is home to an archive and a fellowship
for psychical research – an area gaining ground, even in the mainstream’. This
refers to the SPR’s archive held at Cambridge University Library (CUL), and
Wilson covers, in a positive manner, a variety of topics relating to the SPR
and psychical research. However, I took issue with one statement: ‘There was
already a substantial archive [in CUL], and it was gradually growing as the
society [i.e. SPR] sorted through their own holdings.’
The
phrase ‘their own holdings’ implies that the collection held at CUL no longer
belongs to the SPR, whereas it has to be emphasised that the SPR still owns it.
Authors occasionally make this mistake, and it seems that sometimes the
University does little to disabuse them, so that it has been known for books
using SPR material to include thanks to the Syndics of Cambridge University
Library for permission to reproduce it, rather than the SPR. This does not
apply to the Wren Library, which is the owner of its holdings in psychical
research.
References
Gauld,
Alan. (1978) 'Psychical Research in Cambridge from the Seventeenth Century to
the Present', Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 49(778),
pp. 925–937.
Wilson,
Lydia. (2026) 'Parapsychology is Coming in from the Cold', New Lines
Magazine, 17 July. Available at:
https://newlinesmag.com/essays/parapsychology-is-coming-in-from-the-cold/
(Accessed: 18 July 2026).
