Allen Campbell was born in England in 1833, and moved to the United States as a young man. He met Charles Shourds, and they became friends, and business partners as import/export traders and world travelers who ran a business in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
By the late 1890s, they had also made their mark as Spiritualists and producers of some of the most amazing spirit paintings. The Cassadagan, a monthly newspaper published in Meadeville, Pennsylvania, stated in the July 17, 1894 issue that Allen Campbell was a medium through whom beautiful art productions were obtained, and that he was kept busy with engagements. Charles Shourds was mentioned in the same issue as giving two materialization séances per week. The first mention of the two men working together as a team was made seven years later, in 1897. Now they called themselves The Campbell Brothers, because public acknowledgement of their gay relationship was not socially acceptable in the late 1800’s.
Method Used for Precipitation Art
The examined blank canvas were be placed on a table with oil paints in a receptacle underneath the table, and all was then covered with a black cloth. The mediums and sitters would join hands or place their hands down on the table. When the cover was lifted there would be a finished painting, the like of which would take a professional artist many days to produce.
Azur the Helper
One of the most impressive paintings (which may be seen today in the parlor of the Maplewood Hotel at Lily Dale Assembly, Lily Dale, New York) is the life-size portrait of Allen Campbell's spirit guide Azur. It was done on June 15, 1898, on a canvas measuring forty inches by sixty inches and was produced in front of a number of witnesses. Each sitter in turn sat with Allen Campbell inside the cabinet while the painting was being produced. Every time the curtain was drawn back to allow a change of sitter, it was observed that a little more of the painting had developed. A group of witnesses stated that when the finished painting was finally brought out (after one hour and thirty minutes) a six-pointed star that was not originally there slowly materialized at the back of Azur's head.
Allen Campbell died in Atlantic City [New Jersey] in 1919. Charles Shourds died in Lily Dale, New York, in 1926. The combined ashes of both men were spread in the Atlantic Ocean, off the beaches of Atlantic City.
Buckland , Raymond. The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and Spirit Communication. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press, 2006. p. 60.
