This volume was produced by Thomas Olman Todd in 1905 at the request of Spiritualist author Emma Hardinge Britten in order to make a "splendid pamphlet" on the origins of Spiritualism available to a wider reading audience. It is drawn from materials found in her own comprehensive book on the subject, Modern American Spiritualism (1869), as well as the first-hand accounts of events found in A Report of the Mysterious Noises heard in the house of Mr. John D. Fox ..., collected by E.E. Lewis in 1848, and from Robert Dale Owen's Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (1860).
All three authors of these primary sources had been personally
acquainted with the Fox Family of Hydesville, NY, in whose home the
"spirit rappings" that precipitated the American Spiritualist movement
occurred in 1848, making Hydesville a fundamental work in the history
and origins of the American Spiritualist movement.
Rarely found in print, this edition has been newly edited and typeset
for ease of reading while maintaining the style and unabridged content
of the 1905 original.