Is Abraham Lincoln still haunting the halls of the White House? This week on SPILLED., we’re talking presidential paranormal activity. He showed up in offices and bathrooms alike. Was Honest Abe trying to warn us… or just checking in on democracy?
Join us as we unpack the ghostly lore surrounding Lincoln, the séances held in the White House, and why America’s most solemn president became its most famous spirit. Expect spooky history, dramatic retellings, and our completely unqualified theories.
Tune in if you love ghost stories, U.S. history, or the weird overlap between politics and the paranormal.
Sources:
Bach, Jennifer L. “Acts of Remembrance: Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Husband’s Memory.” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 25, no. 2 (2004): 25–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20149062.
Baker, Jean H. Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987.
DJangi, Parissa. “Séances at the White House? Why These First Ladies Turned to the Occult.” National Geographic, April 24, 2024. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/seances-at-the-white-house.
Kommel, Alexandra. “Séances in the Red Room: How Spiritualism Comforted the Nation during and after the Civil War.” White House History, April 24, 2019. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/seances-in-the-red-room.
Moore, R. Laurence. “Spiritualism and Science: Reflections on the First Decade of the Spirit Rappings.” American Quarterly 24, no. 4 (1972): 474–500. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711685.
Pimple, Kenneth D. “Ghosts, Spirits, and Scholars: The Origins of Modern Spiritualism.” In Out Of The Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural, edited by Barbara Walker, 75–89. University Press of Colorado, 1995. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46nwn8.10.
White House Historical Association. “White House Ghost Stories.” White House History. Accessed October 21, 2025. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-backgrounders/white-house-ghost-stories.
“Last Hours Of Abraham Lincoln.” The British Medical Journal 1, no. 231 (1865): 569–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25204716.
West, Nancy M. “CAMERA FIENDS: EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY, DEATH, AND THE SUPERNATURAL.” The Centennial Review 40, no. 1 (1996): 170–206. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23740730.
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