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>> Amanda Zimmerman: Hello,
and welcome to from the vaults,
an ongoing video series
from the Rare Book
and Special Collections Division
at the Library of Congress.
My name is Amanda Zimmerman,
and I am a reference librarian
is a division, and today,
we're going to take a look at
the mysterious set of volumes
from Harry Houdini's
personal library.
Houdini, whom we perhaps
know best as a magician
and a escape artist,
wrote in his 1924 book,
A Magician Among the Spirits,
that he had "accumulated one
of the largest libraries in
the world on psychic phenomena,
spiritualism, magic, witchcraft,
demonology, evil spirits, etc.,
some the material going
back as far as 1489.
In 1927, through Houdini's
office request the Library was
lucky enough to receive
nearly 4,000 volumes
for Houdini's personal library,
each bearing his
unique footplate.
One of the great joys of working
for the Library of Congress is
that we receive reference and
research queries from people
around the world, and the
Houdini Collection tends
to get a lot of attention.
These volumes from Houdini's
library what were brought
to our attention when
a researcher wrote
in with a reference question
about them, and we ended
up learning a lot more
than we bargained for.
The books themselves
don't tell you much
about their use or their origin.
Even their author, Frederick
Hockley, is an enigmatic figure
who we don't know much about,
even though he is often
referenced as a key contributor
to the 19th-century
occult movement in England.
Mr. Hockley's early life is
especially shrouded in mystery.
There are no official
records of his birth,
his family, or his education.
Scholars have only been able
to piece together information
about him by tracing his name
through UK census records
or the proving of his will
and the announcement
of his death in 1885.
Here's what we do know
about Mr. Hockley.
From a natal chart in
one of his own books,
we see that he was born in
1808 somewhere near London,
but we can't be sure where.
In 1816, he started working
for a man named John Denley
who was a dealer in
rare manuscripts dealing
with the occult.
The work that Hockley
did for Denley was
to copy 17th-century
manuscripts,
so that Denley could sell
these reproductions and,
in doing this work, he became
immensely interested in all
of the emerging occult phenomena
that was coming out
around this time.
In a lecture he gave
at the London Dialectical
Society's Special Committee
on Spiritualism,
Hockley mentioned
that he began his early work
with crystals and mirrors
as early as 16 years old, and
he quickly became convinced
that this was the only true
way to speak with the beyond.
He also mentioned that he
had 30 volumes of notes
from his scrying
experiments, containing upwards
of 12,000 answers
from the beyond,
which he kelp carefully
under lock and key.
After Hockley's death in 1885,
his vast collection of books
and manuscripts, crystals, and
mirrors, were all dispersed
and sold in various
channels, and only some
of them can currently be traced.
Though a handful
of Hockley's works
for his library have been
identified around the world,
including one at the Folger
Shakespeare Library and another
at the Welcome Collection,
none of his scrying notebooks
have yet been recovered.
In fact, Hockley scholars
have long lamented
that these may just
be lost to history.
And that brings us
back to Houdini
and the Library of Congress.
Tucked away in Houdini's already
unusual collection are these
volumes, which are unlike
any others in his collection.
They, we're not sure when or
where Houdini acquired them,
and we also don't know why he
only has some volumes, four,
five, and seven through 15.
They are rather puzzling.
They contain handwritten
notes and strange diagrams
with little, or no, explanation.
They seem completely
impenetrable.
In an effort to learn more
about them, the Rare Book
and Special Collections
Division had each one digitized,
and then, we asked
for your help.
Over the past year, members
of the public have been
helping the Library's
By the People crowdsourcing
campaign by helping
to transcribe the texts in
these mysterious volumes.
The strange jottings
inside, are, in fact,
the notes Hockley kept during
his crystal gazing experiments,
including descriptions of
spirits he and his medium came
into contact with, the
questions asked of,
and information received from,
those spirits, and astrological
and astronomical readings,
graphs, and charts.
Thus, with your help,
from scholars
around the world
can now view, study,
and interpret Hockley's
scrying experiments
and his occult knowledge
for the very first time.
Thank you so much
for joining us today.
It's our hope that
through this project,
more Hockley volumes
will come to light
in institutions around
the world.
We look forward to sharing with
you more of our favorite items
from the vaults in the
Library of Congress.
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