Fred Barlow

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Fred Barlow (1932, in Proceedings of the SPR)
Fred Barlow and 3 witnesses with the spirit of his father (1922, The Case for Spirit Photography)

Fred Barlow (?-1964) was a paranormal photographer from Birmingham. He was secretary of the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures (S.S.S.P.) where Arthur Conan Doyle was vice-president. He was also Honorary Secretary of the Birmingham and Midland Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.).

Barlow had a huge collection of psychic photographs which were inherited by E. J. Dingwall, which published in 1975 : "The Barlow collection of psychic photographs", and deposited them at the British Museum.


Fred Barlow and Arthur Conan Doyle

In 1922, Fred Barlow wrote the preface and chapter 8: Evidential and Scientific Aspects of Psychic Photography of Arthur Conan Doyle's essay: The Case for Spirit Photography.

In 1924, he was the Hon. Secretary for the donation campaign for Rev. G. Vale Owen launched by Conan Doyle. [1]

In his book The History of Spiritualism (1926), Conan Doyle mentioned Barlow: "In 1920 Mr. Fred Barlow, of Birmingham, a well-known investigator, obtained with this medium [photographs] extras of faces and written messages, under test conditions, on plates that were not exposed in the camera."


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  1. Arthur Conan Doyle's letter: The Future of the Rev. G. Vale Owen (31 may 1924).