William Hope was born in Crewe, England in 1863 and worked as a carpenter for most of his life.

In 1905, he believed that he captured an image of a ghost while photographing a friend, and became interested in spirit photography.

Hope founded a group of spirit photographers known as the Crewe Circle. Following the devastation of World War I, grieving families began coming to the circle, looking for a way to contact their lost loved ones. Hope would often ask an individual for a photo of the departed to aid communication with the spirit realm before asking that they sit for a portrait.

By 1922, Hope had become a professional medium and moved to London, and was the subject of numerous investigations. The Society for Psychical Research determined that his spirit photos were hardly supernatural, and were simply the products of combining glass plates to create superimposed ghostly images.

Despite the society publicly accusing him of fraud, Hope continued to practice until his death in 1933. He had many dedicated supporters, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote The Case for Spirit Photography in his defense.