Lyman C Howe, the noted American writer and lecturer said of his experience: 'There were two photographs of Maude enclosed in a sealed envelope and placed against the lower backside of the canvas. These had not been opened or in any way exposed to view until the sitting was closed. The sisters had never seen her, and so far as I know and believe, they had never seen her photo. The picture is unlike either photo, and is more perfect and life-like than any photograph she ever had. I mentally asked her to have a yellow rose in her hair, and to write her name "Maude" on the lower margin, and when the picture came out, the rose appeared in the hair, and "Maude" is written on the lower margin, as I mentally requested. I did not tell anyone of the request until the picture was finished. It is the most beautiful and satisfactory phenomenon I ever witnessed'.

A letter to the Bangs Sisters from Syracuse, New York, dated 21 May, 1910, said concerning the arrival of their spirit portrait by mail: 'Our Dear Friends: For such we must call you. The painting arrived safely, and to say that we are both well pleased with it does not half express our sentiment.
Our little darling (their child, who had passed away two years previous to the portrait - NRH), looks just as though he was ready to step down and out of the frame, he is so natural. We fully realise no earthly artist could possibly produce such wonderful work. One cannot see where the picture is started or finished, so perfect is the blending of colours.
We notice the appearance of a certain little ring on the third finger of his left hand, the partial request of his mamma's. This marvellous work has been a great revelation to us; one year ago we would hardly have thought this manifestation possible, and we feel very grateful to you for your efforts in securing for us such a wonderfully satisfactory likeness.
May you have grand success in all the coming years of your life, that we trust the Over-Ruling Intelligence may prolong to a ripe old age, that others may have similar blessings that we are in possession of through your instrumentality.
Very Sincerely Your Friends,
Mr and Mrs Milford Badgero
(The spirit portrait done for the Badgeros' was precipitated as a result of their mental request only; there was no photograph).

A letter from Dr Carpenter, Olin, Iowa, dated Saturday, June 20, 1896, to The Light of Truth.BR> 'On April 25, 1896, I wrote a letter to the Bang Sisters, of No 3 South Elizabeth Street, Chicago, Ill, to have them ask their guide, Capt W Stevens, to ascertain through my wife in spirit life if she could and would give me her picture. On the morning of May 9th I received an answer saying if I would go there the week of May 10th, she would do so. Accordingly, on the 12th I went to the above named mediums in Chicago, Ill. The 13th I spent in having canvas prepared and had a box made 24/30 inches in which I put the prepared canvas. Not, however, before I carefully examined and marked same so I could fully identify it. I then nailed it securely shut. The box was then placed under a table leaning against the wall in which position it remained, the medium sitting at one end of the table and myself at the other. After sitting from 10 minutes past 10 o'clock am until 10 minutes past one pm the medium held the slate under the table and received this message, "we have exhausted your patience, open the box".
We accordingly opened the box and to my great surprise and joy beheld a complete life sized picture of my wife and child in the spirit world. The picture is so natural and life-like that many of my neighbours and friends fully recognise it although they have been in spirit life for 33 years'.

Seance Report by Admiral W Usborne Moore.
'On Monday, March 1, 1909, I went to the Bangs Sisters' house, and found that they had sent to the town for two panel canvases, and there was considerable delay. At last they arrived, covered with paper that was wet, and I exposed them in the sun for about twenty-five minutes to dry. We sat for the full length-picture of Iola at 11.40. At 11.46 the figure appeared on the further side of the canvas next to me. It was roughly finished by 11.51, and placed on a chair at the side of the room, still developing. At 12.10 we were told to cover it and leave it, and return a 3pm. The mediums were not disengaged till 3.30, when we sat opposite the picture again for twenty minutes. Some changes had occurred in the interval, improving the picture much. When I left at 12.10 I had expressed the opinion that the figure - then with bare arms - was too girlish, and I had also wished for a locket and chain to be put on the neck. I left a locket, similar to the one worn by Iola in earth life, close to the picture. On my return the arms were covered with sleeves, and the chain and locket were around the neck; the dress also had been finished with embroidery, etc., and other improvements had taken place.
At 7.30pm I returned to the house, and found the picture had undergone further improvements, especially in the sky and background. I mentally desired that the locket should be made larger, and that the monogram should be impressed upon it. No-body was present when I inspected the locket on this occasion; the mediums were not at home; I removed the locket at the foot of the picture, and took it away with me. My next visit was at 10.20 the following morning, March 2, 1909. I then found that the monogram had been imprinted on the locket, not exactly a copy of the raised letters as on the real locket in my possession, but the three correct letters were there; one line was omitted, and the locket itself, as I had requested, was enlarged. Shadows had been added, improving the picture.

'Conjurers, Fraud and The Bangs Sisters', by Admiral W Usborne Moore:
'The efforts of bona-fide conjurers should never be despised by investigators into Spiritualism. If they can pick up a fraudulent medium, so much the better for us. Provided they relate truthfully what they have seen and how they account for it, they cannot possibly do any injury to genuine psychics. Unhappily, they cannot all confine their mystifications to the stage, but carry their legitimate deceptions into private life, where they are not legitimate; and they often weaken their influence by committing themselves at the first start to theories of fraud before they have witnessed the phenomena which are the basis of discussion.
In recent times no psychics have been so long and so constantly under fire of criticism as the Bangs Sisters. I record the fact, but entirely without surprise. The manifestations which appear through their mediumship are of such a startling nature as to render it in the highest degree improbable that anyone, however experienced he may be as an investigator, can credit the accounts of what takes place, unless he has actually seen the various phenomena that occur. Many have been the efforts to show that what happens in their presence is the effect of pure conjuring on their own part. All have failed'.

After Admiral Moore had met with Dr Isaac K Funk, the noted author and chief proprietor of Funk and Wagnalls Publishing, in March, 1909, and had told him about the phenomena taking place in the presence of the Bangs Sisters, Dr Funk paid the expenses of Mr Hereward Carrington, the clever psychical investigator and conjurer, to go to Chicago, investigate the Bangs, and report to him the phenomena. Dr Funk, who himself had investigated the Bangs, had an extremely high opinion of their genuine mediumship. Carrington, who was unaware of the fact that Admiral Moore had sat extensively with the Bangs in January and March, 1909, published a scathing, negative report about the Bangs in the Annals of Psychic Science, an English journal of which he was the American agent.
The Admiral goes on to say: 'After waiting one year and a quarter after his investigation, Mr Carrington published a long article in the journal (mentioned above), accusing the Bangs Sisters of fraud. I do not know if this article was verbatim the same as his report to Dr Funk, but the latter did not see it till April, 1911, and disapproved of its publication. As it was published in an English journal, the Bangs Sisters knew nothing of this scurrilous production; I was the first to inform them of it, in January, 1911'.

The plan of the room layout given by Carrington in his article was so wrong and blatantly false it was as if he was describing another house altogether. When Admiral Moore returned to Chicago in January of 1911, his sole mission was to put to rest the accusations of the conjurers and prove, once again the genuineness of the Bangs Sisters. The following are excerpts of the conversation between the Admiral and the Bangs:
Admiral Moore: 'Certain medium-hunters in this country, and a first rate conjurer in England (who is quite sincere in believing you to be conjurers like himself), have spread reports about you very much to your detriment - one of the Americans I mention (Carrington), has written an article in an English magazine, saying that in June, 1909, you cheated him, quoting extensively from another person'.
This is the exact quote Carrington referred to Journal of the SPR, Vol. X: 'The writer', he said 'claims to have seen the tricks by means of a small hand mirror which he held beneath the table. He found that, under cover of the writing pad placed against the edges of the slate resting on the table the slates were wedged open by means of a small rubber wedge, the letter, when abstracted, was dropped on to a sort of 'gridiron' arrangement which lay on the carpet. It was promptly drawn backwards under a slip of the door into the next room where Miss Lizzie Bangs, the other sister, steamed the envelope open, answered all the questions, sealed the envelope back shut, and then conveyed it back into the room. In the meantime in the ink in the cup had time to evaporate so that it appeared to have been used'.

Admiral Moore then said to the Bangs: 'I do not suppose that either of these persons had the courage to send you a copy of their charges. You know me, and are quite aware that I have entered this room having full confidence in the genuineness of what I saw with you in 1909'.
Admiral Moore then added that he wanted to test them completely again for a portrait and a letter, but he would 'upset' their usual conditions and direct the proceedings himself.
To this, Lizzie Bangs replied: "Mr Moore, we trust you, and will submit to your wishes; but we warn you that the very knowledge of what the man has said in the English magazine will upset conditions to such an extent that I doubt if you will be successful. The man you mention was never in this house. We know his description, and should sense hostility if anybody came in that way". No arrangements were made for him or anyone else by Dr Funk in 1909, as he describes; nor have we ever sat three times for one person, for a picture, in one day. Do what you like, and tell us what to do'.
Admiral Moore stated in his record: 'Imagine the conditions: Table shifted to a part of the room to which it was a stranger; the psychic who functions alone in the phenomena of writing within sealed envelopes at the usual sittings for this purpose (May), placed with her face towards the southern light streaming into the room; both women seething with indignation at cowardly attacks published in England; the suspected door wide open; the door into the hall wide open; and Lizzie, the person who, it is alleged, hides behind the suspected door and writes replies, in the room'.
Lizzie Bangs said: (condensed) 'You have no idea how this sudden and complete upset of our usual conditions affects us. We have no objection to a gradual altering of our accustomed habits�but to come suddenly upon us and change all our conditions in one day is more than any sensitive can stand - the strain is too great. If you had not told me of these slanders, I assure you we would never have consented to your demands. We will never do it again for anyone'.

Admiral Moore tested the Bangs for a gruelling five days, January 28th to February 1st, 1911, and the ordeal, according to Moore 'left both sisters much exhausted'. May Bangs could hardly walk, and Lizzie, though calm, had evidently reached the limits of endurance.
After his series of tests, which were a complete and total success for a precipitated portrait and independent writing - the researching aspect of which even left me totally exhausted - the Bangs Sisters triumphed, and Admiral Moore proved his case again. He conclusively stated:' Either the author of that article has never been inside the Bangs' house, or he is incapable of making ordinary observations with accuracy. The attack on these psychics, without sending them a copy, and in an English magazine which he knew they would not see, is an act that requires no comment from me'.

Carrington had also claimed that David P Abbott had succeeded in duplicating the Bangs Sisters portraits by trickery exactly. The Admiral replied that he made a number of tests, and that he read carefully the expose by Dr Krebs, which was furnished to him by Dr Hodgson, that he knew the method employed by Abbott, Mariott and Dr Wilmar, that it surpassed in skill almost every conjuring trick he had ever witnessed, but that their conditions were as different from those at the seances of the Bangs Sisters as 'a locomotive is different from a teapot'. It was the conjuring performance of these clowns as a matter of fact which convinced him even more of the genuineness of the Bangs Sisters.