Hardy, Mary M. (ca. 1875)
Hardy, Mary M. (ca. 1875)
Boston, Massachusetts, medium through whom, in 1875, the first paraffin casts of hands of spirits were obtained. Hardy gave séances in public halls before hundreds of spectators. On the platform there was a table, the cloth of which reached to the ground. Two vessels, containing liquid paraffin and cold water, were placed under the table. The lights were turned down, but spectators were able to see the medium sitting motionless. After about a quarter of an hour raps were heard and a paraffin mold was found floating on the water.
Hardy was investigated by William Denton, who conducted many careful experiments.
In 1875 Hardy visited Europe and gave séances in England and on the Continent. For an account of a séance in 1876 under rigid test conditions, during which molds of spirit hands were produced, see the British periodical The Spiritualist (1878, p. 168).