Hamilton 1853

Background coming soon

Emma's Bride Doll

This photo is said to be cursed. Dina claims the doll was cursed by her great Aunt, who was considered the "black sheep of the family". When she wasn't invited to the wedding of her neice, Emma. She sent the doll as a gift, along with a note saying, "May your marriage last as long as this doll." A year later, a house fire claimed the lives of the niece & her husband. The doll was also destroyed. This photo is all that remained & is blamed for breaking up the marriages of all in the family. The photo was given to me in 2020 by Dina, who planned to be married in March 2021. Dina hoped this decision would "break the curse" of her family.

Portrait of Eleanor Celestella

This portrait is the first "haunted" portrait I was able to acquire. I picked it up at a local flea market in Bristol, Pa. The vendor initially wanted $20, but when I started to walk away, the vender cut the price in half ($10). I jokingly asked, "Why do you want to get rid of it so badly, is it haunted?" The vendor's face dropped, and he appeared concerned. He said, "Yes, the eyes are always watching me". I explained that these types of portraits create the illusion of eyes that follow the viewer, since the face is looking straight ahead. The vendor added, "she also comes out of painting, walks around at night. I don't want it anymore. You take it, two dollars." To clarify, I stated "You're saying this woman, in the portrait, COMES OUT of the portrait...and walks around? Seriously?" The vendor confirmed his story. I paid the man two dollars and hung the portrait in the old museum. Two crew members, who were shooting a horror film in the building, interacted with the portrait. One stared into its eye for a few minutes, then complained that everything started going wrong for him that day (broken watch, car broke down, etc.). The other witness touched the portrait and commented, "she's not pretty." Later that day, all her scheduled appointments cancelled on her. The film crew considered the portrait cursed and would avoid it.

First, this is not a photograph, it is likely a 'crayon portrait', meaning that a very faint image was transferred onto the canvas, via a solar enlarger, and an artist traced over the details with crayon, charcoal, or pencil. On the back is inscribed, 'Eleanor Celestella 1867'. The portrait seems to have only have an affect on those who believe in curses. I've had the portrait for over a year now with no ill-effects to me or my life. 

The "Curse" of the Crying Boy Paintings

'The Curse of the Crying Boy' appeared out of the blue on the morning of September 4, 1985. The Sun, a popular tabloid newspaper in the UK, published the headlined: 'Blazing Curse of the Crying Boy.' It told how Ron & May Hall blamed a cheap painting of toddler with tears rolling down his face for a fire which gutted their home in Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. Although the downstairs rooms of the house were badly damaged, the framed print of the crying boy was undamaged. "The Crying Boy" was one of a series of paintings complete in the 1950s by artist Giovanni Bragolin, which was likely the pseudonym of a Spanish painter, Bruno Amodio, also known as "Franchot Seville. Prints of the painting were mass-produced, with over 50,000 sold in the UK alone. A firefighter claimed that he had attended at least 15 house fires where everything was destroyed. The only thing left complete in each home was the picture of "The Crying Boy." Before long, the story gathered momentum, and a rash of fires all over the United Kingdom were blamed on the cursed child. After printing more articles and scare stories, 'The Sun' offered a frightened public a solution. On Halloween 1985, hundreds of the paintings were collected by the newspaper and burnt under the supervision of the Fire Brigade. The hysteria grew so wide that the South Yorkshire Fire Service issued a statement dismissing the connection between the fires and the prints. It explained that the most recent blaze was started by an electric heater left too close to a bed. "Fires are not started by pictures or coincidence," stated Chief Divisional Officer Mick Riley, "but by careless acts and omissions. The reason why this picture has not always been destroyed in the fire is because it is printed on high-density hardboard, which is very difficult to ignite." Indeed, investigations reveal the fires in almost all cases could be traced back to human carelessness or electrical faults. In a 2010 video made by Steve Punt and available on YouTube, a painting of 'The Crying Boy' is set alight in a bid to decide the matter once and for all. By the time the fire burns out, the corner of the painting is scorched but it remains largely intact and the face remains untouched. Quite simply, the manufacturer of the print created a fire-resistant product that became a victim of its own success.