Label
Handkerchief, 1886
Possibly Mary Conner Whitney
Putnamville, VT
Cotton, ink
This white handkerchief with faint purple scrawl from 1886 is an example of Vermonters' early attempts to connect with the deceased. In 1886, a seance was held in Putnamville, Vermont, not far from Barre. During the seance, a spirit writer allegedly penned the following note on the handkerchief: "Dear Mother, I am here..." The writer also attempted to sign the note as evidenced from the faint last indiscernible line. The handkerchief's owner was seance participant Mary Jane Wright, whose husband Medad had established the nearby settlement of Wrightsville. Mrs. Wright's daughter, Jennie, later claimed that the note had been written "without visible hands." The medium holding the seance was identified as "Mrs. Whitney." This may have been Mary Conner Whitney, whose daughter, Anna, had married Jacob Putnam, one of the members of the founding family of Putnamville. Had Mrs. Whitney in fact made contact with spirits? We do know that Mrs. Wright's eldest son, Prentiss, had died sometime after 1880. He was a bachelor who lived with his parents his entire life, working in the Putnams' lumber mills. Look closely at the rather illegible signature on the handkerchief - could it be the first few letters of the name "Prentiss?" Only the spirits know for sure.