In collaboration with the Media Preservation Unit, the University Archives has recently digitized a notable collection of 7″ audio tapes recorded between 1961 and 1978 by Edwin B. Peebles of Bloomington, IL.
Edwin Peebles was born in 1901 in Mooresville, Alabama. While little is known about his early life, his family records tell the story of living on a plantation in the antebellum south, including genealogical records, a diary kept by his brother and mother, and mementos such as hair clippings.
Following his death in 1977, Edwin B. Peebles bequeathed his library materials to the University of Illinois Library in Urbana. An uncommon request, given that Peebles had no connection to the University that we know of – but a fitting one, considering the contents of the library that he amassed over the course of his later life. The Peebles library consisted of books on spiritualism, religion, UFOs, and other esoteric topics which fit in well with the existing Merten J. Mandeville Collection at the Library. However, the most notable part of the donation (in our humble opinion) was the material which ended up in the University Archives.
The Edwin B. Peebles papers (record series 35/2/50) include correspondence, family photos and genealogy, and a diary; all common fare for an individual’s archival records. The bulk of the Peebles papers, however, consists of notes, transcriptions, and audio recordings of seances performed with the aid of a medium in the attempt to contact “universal teachers” from the past.
When Peebles first began his foray into spiritualism, he reached out to his mother and sister from beyond the grave via a direct voice medium, Reverend Walter Holder. As time progressed, he contacted others dwelling in the spiritual realm: including friends from his past lives, historical figures such as the Buddha and Joan of Arc, “biblical characters” such as Mary and Joseph, and even Jesus himself. Peebles ultimately compiled the information from these seances into two books published in his lifetime: Hidden Truths (1974) and The Kingdom of the Mind (1973).
While the transcripts and the audio may give the impression that Peebles enthusiastically and uncritically accepted the results of these seances, a note found with tape number 46 tells a different story. The note declares that the medium used for that session, Robert James Lee, is a “pretender;” reflecting the discerning attitude that Peebles held towards the mediums he worked with.
Peebles himself refers to his practice as Spiritualism and spirit communication. However, the ideas represented in his papers also veer into the realm of Theosophy, a philosophy which believes in the teachings of spiritual masters who inhabit mediums during seances as their primary mode of contact.
Recently digitized, the Edwin B. Peebles tapes offer a unique look into the practice of spiritualism and seances in the 1960s and 70s. The digitized recordings of the tapes, as well as scans of some of the physical material, can be found in our digital collections database: https://digital.library.illinois.edu/collections/fb706df0-e5db-013b-4773-02d0d7bfd6e4-7/tree.
If you are interested in learning more about these records, or would like to arrange an appointment to view them, please email the University Archives at illiarch@illinois.edu.