As late 1880's gentlewoman, author, traveller, and psychic investigator E. Katherine Bates writes, "e;psychometry is the science of learning to receive impressions and intuitions from the atmosphere surrounding any material object-a letter, a ring, a piece of pebble or shell, and so naturally this is especially the case in letters written and signed by us."e; One of Bates' many pieces written as she traveled the world investigating psychic phenomena, 'Psychometric Portraiture of the Victorian Era', addresses the psychometry of paintings and portraits.