The picture was taken in 1936 by Captain Provand and Indre Shira, on assignment at Raynham Hall for the magazine Country Life. It purports to show the ghost of the 'Brown Lady' who haunts Raynham Hall in England. The image is widely believed to be one of the best and most convincing of all the known photographs of ghosts.

According to legend, the Brown Lady of Raynham is the ghost of Lady Townshend who was married to Charles Townshend, a man known for his fiery temper. When Charles learned of his wife's infidelity, he punished her by imprisoning her in the family estate at Raynham Hall, located in Norfolk, England. He never allowed her to leave its premises, not even to see her children. She remained there until her death, when she was an old woman.

Over the next two centuries Lady Townshend's ghost was repeatedly sighted wandering through Raynham Hall, suggesting that she never left its premises even after her death.