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, which is administered by Trinity. It supports psychical
research from bequests made by Frank Perrott in 1937 and Frederic Warrick in
1956, addressing 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 meaningful presence in psychical research. A letter from Warrick to
Broad, written in August 1945, refers to his use of photomicrography to analyse
“streaks” recorded on photographic plates in experiments with mediums. The
exhibition concludes with 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, though well outside the exhibition title’s
dates); and a snapshot of Broad standing in the Great Court at Trinity, rounding
off a small but enjoyable reminder of the College’s long association with
psychical research.
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| 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).
