Join us in November for The 2026 Yankee Gathering

Ken Trombly Online Lecture: Houdini and the Spiritualists

Save the Date! Sunday, August 30th, 2:00 PM Eastern

Members will be emailed the meeting link one week prior to the event

Much of Harry Houdini's life was intertwined with episodes and personalities associated with spiritualism and its practitioners. Just as he sometimes blurred the line between conjuring and the spirit world in his early days, throughout his meteoric career many of his conjuring feats were ascribed by some to unseen forces. His friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle came to an end over the latter’s belief in spiritualism.

Houdini testified before a congressional committee in support of a bill to prohibit fortune telling in Washington, DC, and his work against fake mediums continued up until his untimely death. In this talk, Ken shares his thoughts concerning Houdini’s relationship with spiritualism and its adherents, and will illustrate this fascinating story with items from his collection of original Houdini ephemera.

About Ken Trombly

A longtime collector with a fascination for magic history, Ken Trombly has given presentations before magic collector groups in Washington, DC, Boston, LA, Chicago, and London. The proprietor of Magicposters.com, Ken is also the author of The Art of Magic- A Lifetime of Collecting (Vanishing Inc, 2025). He is an Associate Member of the Inner Magic Circle, sits on the Milbourne Christopher Awards Selection Committee, and is the newest member of NEMCA’s Board of Directors.

A Companion to Ken’s Lecture

Houdini vs. The Spiritualists ∙ A Battle on Capitol Hill
By Chuck Romano

A gripping account of the world's greatest magician, Harry Houdini, as he waged war against the spiritualists on Capitol Hill. Here magic met politics and illusion collided with truth.

This book provides the complete transcript of the four days of hearings and offers a detailed examination of the proceedings and individuals involved. Its contents shed light on these extraordinary hearings, where belief and skepticism clashed, and Congress became an unexpected venue for one of the most unusual confrontations in American history.

Pre-Order: Houdini's Library: Inside the Spellbinding Collections of the Great Illusionist

By Eric Colleary, Curator of Performing Arts at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

A landmark volume in the history of magic―the first-ever book on Houdini’s legendary personal collection, published on the centennial of his death

Harry Houdini (1874–1926) was not only a great magician but a great collector. Every corner of his townhouse at 278 West 113th Street in New York was filled with books, pamphlets, prints, clippings, playbills, and photographs documenting the history of magic and theatrical performance. “It would cost fully a million dollars to forge the collection of evidence now in my hands,” Houdini wrote in 1908. “These programs, advertisements, newspaper notices, and crude cuts trace the history of magic as no romancer, no historian of a single generation possibly could. They are the ghosts of dead and gone magicians, rising in this century of research and progress to claim the credit due them.”

This handsome oversize volume is published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, where much of Houdini’s library is preserved. It traces the growth of the legendary illusionist’s collections throughout his career and illustrates hundreds of his treasures―many for the first time. They range from a priceless copy of Reginald Scot’s 1584 volume Discovery of Witchcraft, the first book to reveal the secrets of sleight-of-hand; the irreplaceable collection of playbills and programs that Houdini obtained from the British conjuror Henry Evans Evanion; the travel diary of David Garrick, the eighteenth-century actor who defined modern theatre; and much more. Houdini’s Library will be a source of fascination for anyone interested in the history of magic and performance.

New for the Yankee Gathering 2026: Lightning Talks!

Do you have a specialty, an area of interest, an unusual item in your collection, or an anecdote related to magic history or collecting? Could you talk about it for five minutes? If so, you are a perfect candidate to present a Lightning Talk.

Four individuals will each give a five-minute talk within a 30-minute time frame. As host, Mike Rose will introduce each speaker and keep the eclectic group of presentations moving along at a “lightning” pace.

This new concept for the Yankee Gathering is a great opportunity for NEMCA members who have not given presentations before to get their feet wet as speakers. Contact Mike Rose for details on how you can be one of our inaugural Lightning Talkers at the 2026 Yankee Gathering. Mike’s email: [email protected]