Fay, Mrs. H. B. (ca. 1885)
Fay, Mrs. H. B. (ca. 1885)
American materialization medium of the nineteenth century, described by Florence Marryat in her book There is No Death (1891). According to Marryat, some 30 or 40 different forms materialized at a séance, ranging from babies and children to adults, male and female. These materializations included Marryat's late brother Frederick, drowned at sea. The figures came from the séance cabinet into the room.
E. A. Brackett of Boston records interesting séances with Fay in his book Materialized Apparitions (1886). He claims that as many as 40 to 60 forms of all ages appeared during a single séance, often changing into other forms in full view of the sitters. For two years, Brackett himself regularly witnessed the materialization of his wife's niece, who had died young. At one sitting, the Spiritualist Alfred Russel Wallace also recognized the niece.
Sources:
Marryat, Florence. There is No Death. New York: John W. Lovell Co., 1891. Reprint, New York: Causeway Books, 1973.