The Davenport Brothers

Ira and William Davenport

For this weeks post I am continuing on with a chapter in the book The Heyday of Spiritualism by Slater Brown. The chapter I chose for this weeks blog post is about the Davenport Brothers, William Henry and Ira Davenport.

In Buffalo, the Davenport brothers, who would later become some of the most well known mediums made their first public appearance in 1855. At that time Ira Davenport was 16 and William was 14. From the start their demonstrations were similar to the Koonses with their boisterous nature and playing of instruments with spectral hands that touched and prodded spectators.

The Davenport brothers seances were even resided over by the same King, though the Davenport brothers stripped him of his regal title and called him John or Johnnie King. For a while the brothers conducted seances in their own home but under the instruction of King they rented a public hall in which the boys gave public demonstrations and collected a small fee for their services.

Toward the end of 1855 the Davenports paid a visit to New York City and arrived with a far more spectacular repertoire of manifestations. Among them was one that they exhibited in public for the next twenty five years and was regarded as their masterpiece. This consisted in freeing themselves from ropes with which volunteers from the audience bound them in full view of everyone. The process of binding the two brothers often required three quarters of an hour or more, but the boys seldom took more than two minutes to get free, untying every knot.

The Davenport Seance Cabinet

After performing in New York for several weeks the brothers returned home to Buffalo where they devoted a lot of time perfecting their routine. Among their new creations was a cabinet, a sort of portable spirit room in which the brothers could sit in darkness, which, like most mediums, they insisted was best for the production of a successful seance. The Davenports official biographer wrote that the plan and specifications for the cabinet came direct from John King.

During a performance the brothers sat at opposite ends of the cabinet on a plain board bench. The center stage between them, equipped with a bench, was used for the musical instruments, and on occasion a dauntless member of the audience was permitted to sit there. A diamond shaped aperture had been cut near the top of the center door to let in air and for spirit hands to emerge. Dr. S.L. Loomis, a professor at the Medical College of Georgetown University, declared that the structure was "so light and frail as to utterly preclude the idea that anything whatever could be concealed within or about its several parts." (pg. 187).

Actual Image of the Davenport Seance Cabinet

The brothers were tied up by members of the audience, one of which was in the navy, were always able to come out of the contraption with all of the knots untied. Such the same happened at their first performance. What was not repeated by predecessors, such as Houdini, was the second part of the demonstration in which the brothers having been set free from their bonds, "now returned to their seats in the cabinet. A pile of rope was placed between them, the doors were closed, two minutes passed by the audiences watch, the doors swung open, and the two Davenport brothers were found tied up as securely and intricately as before." (pg. 188).

Throughout several of their public demonstrations the Davenport brothers had people sit in the middle cabinet compartment with their respective hands tied to each of the brothers legs. Each witness who was a part of this experiment attested to the fact that the two brothers did not and could not remove the ropes that bound them or play the instruments that continuously played in the middle cabinet above the witnesses head.

Emperor Alexander II

Emperor Napoleon III

The Davenports toured Europe for four years, appearing in large cities and often before royalty. Both Emperor Alexander II and Emperor Napoleon III were fascinated spectators.

Unlike most mediums, the brothers rarely claimed in public that spirits were responsible for the manifestations. Moreover, they never dealt in spiritual communications. Privately, however, they believed in the existence of their spiritual overseer, John King, and at times turned to him for advice, which he gave through a gruff voice through a trumpet. But throughout their career they exhibited their manifestations as itinerant vaudeville performances that and left the audience to decide whether spirits or human beings were responsible for the phenomena. Other mediums, perhaps from professional jealousy, were inclined to suspect them, for the brothers almost never failed to give an exhibition, though gifted mediums like D.D. Home never knew if a seance would be successful.