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Talking boards have their roots in Spiritualism, a belief in the ability of the dead to communicate with the living. Spiritualism began to spread in the United States after the Fox sisters, two young girls aged eleven and fourteen, claimed to have communed with a spirit through mysterious raps they heard in their Hydesville, New York, home in 1848. People soon began inventing a host of clever new ways to contact spirits. In 1886, the press reported on a new device used by some spiritualists in Ohio—a talking board with letters, numbers, and a planchette-like device that pointed to the letters. In 1890, Charles Kennard of Baltimore, Maryland, decided to capitalize on the new talking board phenomenon. The Kennard Novelty Company was the first to offer the device commercially, using the name Ouija board. Learn more about #Ouija boards in our newest exhibition, "The Mysterious Talking Board: #OuijaAndBeyond", opening today, post-security, in Terminal 2. http://bit.ly/OuijaAndBeyond
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