There are countless ghost stories that come from England, which should not come as a surprise as the area is as rich in historical architecture as it is in ghost stories.
Proof is needed however for any story that borders on the unbelievable, like ghosts or other paranormal activity.Using that criteria the Tulip Staircase photograph may count among the very best evidence of ghosts and life after death.
The photo was taken in 1966 by the Reverend Ralph Hardy, who was visiting the Maritime Museum in Greenwhich, England on vacation The staircase in the photo was part of the Queen’s House area of the Museum, which resided in a building over four-hundred years old.
At first the picture may seem very puzzling to look at. You can clearly see the two hands on the staircase, with the electric candelabra lighting a wall somewhere behind the figures.
Taken at an odd angle from the bottom of the unsupported spiral staircase, the camera is pointing up towards the ceiling, a shot Rev. Hardy’s wife decided on after she could not reproduce a shot taken of the staircase in a magazine as the staircase was off limits to all museum guests.
A more modern picture of the Tulip Staircase on the right sheds some much needed (pun intended) light on the picture from 1966 and what vantage point it was taken from.
The Museum itself has been the sight for a few other ghostly tales in it’s long history, such as the woman seen mopping up the blood of a maid who was thrown from the top balcony, guests being ‘pinched’ by unseen hands and voices of ghostly children.
Even the British Ghost Club the picture was investigated by in the sixties reported strange unexplainable footsteps near the staircase when they performed an on site investigation at the time.
However, the really interesting thing about the Tulip Staircase Ghost photograph is how scrutinized it was immediately after it was taken thanks to the Hardy family allowing the photo to be examined by experts in both the paranormal and photography fields.
After noticing the odd apparitions in their vacation photo after returning to Canada, the Hardy’s allowed The Ghost Club back in England to examine the photograph. Later the picture would be examined by the Kodak Film Company.
The Photo In Color
Neither examination could prove the photo away as a fake and in fact the examinations provided this factual data on the photograph:
- The photo did not seem to have suffered from photographic tricks or manipulations.
- Each photo was accounted for in the roll. Neither the shot before nor after the ghost capture contains any image (both were of other architectural features of the Museum; one of a colonnade and one of a figurehead) that might have ‘bled’ over to the staircase shot.
- The photograph was taken with a Zeiss Ikon Contina with Kodachrome 35mm color film. The picture was taken in natural daylight with no flash.
Kodak’s conclusion is that someone must have been present on the stairway at the time the photo was taken to have those figures present in the shot.
So is this a simple case of a real live person caught on a stairwell with a weird but honest photographic effect, or is this the picture of the ghosts said to haunt the Maritime Museum out for a stroll?
-Thomas Spychalski
Related articles
