[The history of magic scrapbooks from the Houdini collection, with related material from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center], 1874-1926 1890-1926.

The magician and escapologist Harry Houdini spent much of his life exploring spiritual phenomena and exposing fraudsters. His archive contains a number of scrapbooks documenting the history of magic and spiritualism. The sixth scrapbook, the Spiritualism scrapbook, contains clippings of articles about the Spiritualism movement, including news coverage of Houdini's disputes with his friend Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a defender of Spiritualism. The collection also includes numerous photographs and over 100 magnificent original colour posters advertising a variety of acts.