Agnes Guppy-Volckman


Agnes Guppy-Volckman was a British spiritualist medium.

Career

She was born Agnes Elisabeth White in Regent's Park, London. She was known as Miss Agnes Nichol, later becoming the second wife of the spiritualist Samuel Guppy in 1867. After the death of Guppy in 1875, she married William Volckman.
Guppy-Volckman was discovered by Alfred Russel Wallace in 1866 and managed to dupe him into believing she could communicate with spirits. Volckman was associated with the fraudulent spirit photographer Frederick Hudson. She was known for producing apports and materializations. Researcher Ronald Pearsall described the fraudulent techniques that Guppy-Volckman used in her séances.
John Grant has written that she "was a clever charlatan; her stunts bear all the hallmarks of extravagant stage conjuring tricks."
Molly Whittington-Egan has written a biography of Guppy-Volckman.

Alleged levitation

On 3 June 1871 it was alleged that Volckman had levitated out of her own house in Highbury three miles away to a séance room table in Lamb's Conduit Street. Although this incident was considered genuine by spiritualists such as Arthur Conan Doyle and A. Campbell Holms, it was dismissed by sceptics as a hoax.