We love it when we receive similar photographs of a ghost, taken a year apart, that validate each other -- and this ghost photo taken in the American History Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. of the same display shows a compelling ghost face.
Is it the case of the glass reflecting light? Maybe, but what makes this image so compelling is that the way the man's head is formed is different between the corroborating pictures; yet, both faces of the ghost are in the same area of the case and horse and are similar in many ways.
Photograph #1
"I took this picture in January of 2012 in the American History Museum in Washington D.C. The picture was supposed to be of the horse, Winchester, but later that night when I was going through my pictures I noticed this face. I don't remember anything there that could of caused this reflection and I have looked at pictures of the exhibit, The Price of Freedom. I would really like someone to feel me if this is a reflection or something real. I'm in the reflection as well. You can see myself holding my Sony Cybershot camera. I don't think I had the flash on either and thats the reason the picture turned out semi blurry." - Kimberly
Photograph #2
"My name is Samantha Williams, and I am from Jamestown, North Dakota. This picture was taken by my mom (in 2011), Eileen, on her cell phone. She was on vacation and went to the Smithsonian Museum. She stopped and took a picture of this horse known as Winchester, horse of General Philip Sheridan. If you look around the horse's nose/mouth, you will see what looks like a perfect head of a man."
"You can see everything in this - hairline, nose, mouth (half of a smile), cheekbones. I, nor anyone else, can make much sense of the eyes - we thought maybe glasses? Also, if you look close enough you can almost see what looks like the start of his left shoulder. Now, I have been interested in ghosts and the supernatural for as long as I can remember. I know what to look for and I know what to approve and what not too. This seems very legit to me. The face almost has a 3d effect to it. It's VERY VERY lifelike; not only to me, but to many. I do not believe this is a reflection (you can see the refection of my mom standing with her arm up, taking the picture near the chest of the horse). You also can see the reflection of other things throughout the horse. That's truly what a reflection is to me. This face/head is too 3D and bright to be a reflection. My mom assured me over and over again, that there was not one person standing next to her while she took this photo. This figure also has a very translucent look to it; you can see through this apparition in different areas through his face. I'm not sure if I can give you any other details."
Some History
The black horse, Winchester (aka "Rienzi"), was owned by Union General Philip Sheridan in the Civil War. The brave animal was presented to him as a gift in 1862 and ridden by him in almost every battle he participated in. Sheridan would later have the famous horse preserved after the animal's passing in 1878 and presented to a museum whose collection eventually was donated to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.
ConclusionÂ
To be honest, we never like to see ghost pictures that involve shooting through glass. However, with this photo we see something different taking place. Our initial thought was that there might have been an anomaly on the glass that became visible with the camera flash. Looking closer, we see a perfect head - actually two heads in the second photograph, the face moving from a side view to straight on. In the first photo, we see the exact same placement of the head by the horse as in the second pic, but the ghost face photographed by someone else, one year later, is more perfectly formed with a well-defined nose and mouth. We don't believe it to be the reflection of a living person (the color in the second photo looks like it's from an old movie, to us - as if it were a projected image). If there was not a TV screen across from the display, we do not know where the ghostly heads could have come from.
Is it a ghost? You decide...