Fascinating Wendy Stephens ! Your Library of Congress links on Lantern Slides is serendipitous! I had done some research on Francis B. Johnston recently (TPS Teachers Network Album Past Classrooms Current Reflections) but had not really looked into the large body of her work on Lantern Slides.

Wonderful post on Johnston’s contributions to this medium in a Library of Congress Collection here: Lantern Slides for Garden and Historic House Lectures.

Slides

https://www.loc.gov/item/2008676002/

You’ve sparked my interest in creating a lesson connecting these primary sources to digital slide creation. Thanks!

Edited

A few years ago, I saw the Jacob Riis: Revealing "How the Other Half Lives" exhibit at the Library of Congress. Riis was the famous photographer and social reformer who gave us all those fabulous photographs of child labor and tenement living.

From the Lecturer exhibit page: "Jacob Riis traveled the United States several months out of the year—and, on occasion, abroad—delivering rousing illustrated lantern slide lectures. His presentations drew crowds that ranged in size from less than one hundred to several thousand. Riis had gained wide recognition for his early “Other Half” lecture in 1888–1889. In later years, he offered lectures on his second bestselling book, the autobiographical, The Making of an American (1901) and his 1902 book The Battle with the Slum. He found audiences in churches, charitable organizations, and schools receptive to his crusading message of social change."

One of my fondest memories of that exhibit was watching Stacie Moats demonstrate an actual magic lantern to a group of students who were visiting the exhibit!

Yes! We did display a magic lantern in that exhibition, although our discovery cart demo actually featured a 19th-century camera and related equipment similar to what Riis used for his photography (also fascinating!). Mary, you may also be recalling that in addition to the exhibition's multimedia, which included this abridged, recreated Riis lantern slide lecture (via modern tech), still available here, we hosted an authentic magic lantern slide show in the Coolidge auditorium for a jam-packed audience. From the Library's press release: "The American Magic-Lantern Theater—the nation’s only theater company that re-creates the Victorian magic-lantern shows—will present the program ... The show will feature lead performer Terry Borton, a fourth-generation lanternist, and Nancy Stewart, a pianist and soprano. The American Magic-Lantern Theater uses original antique projection equipment." It was fabulous but unfortunately could not be filmed. For teacher resources and more relating to the exhibition, check out its Learn More page (note: most of the Library's online exhibitions have a similar page). Enjoy!

I would LOVE to see a production by the American Magic-Lantern Theater. This sounds amazingly beautiful.

Cheryl Davis I had no idea that they began in the 1600s.

Edited

Here's a cool book on the history of lantern slides
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2010/2010_01/20101222001la/20101222001la.pdf

Wow, what incredible resources. Thank you so much for the wonderful collections of slides and for the Tennant and Ward book. I think it so fascinating to think about communities using these resources for edutainment prior to moving pictures. As I think about that transition TO action, I am also playing around with the idea of zoetropes a la Muybridge

And you can make your own:
https://www.cutoutfoldup.com/1108-zoetrope.php

The Prints & Photos blog posted another interesting 19th century imaging technology yesterday -- Photochroms. Photocroms are b&w photographs layered with lithographic plates to simulate full color.

I knew that hand-coloring photographs was a thing, but this sounds like a very complicated technology. There are more than 7000 in the collection -- here's a sample of the Albert Memorial:

I find this process so interesting, because I am not sure I would immediately recognize this as "photography" where I to encounter it physically.

They are stunning! Thanks Wendy Stephens . It would be interesting for a photo class to study this process and compare outcomes to the filters we now have easy access to on digital cameras and the digital photo imaging techniques of today. Once again, primary sources can be a jumping off spot for many different types of lessons and learning.

I bet you have seen these if you have browsed through antique shops. They were very popular souvenirs. If you do encounter some, get out your loupe so you can see the speckling of the color. Here's a little note about how to identify photocroms https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/pgz/process.html?loclr=blogpic

You might be interested in my post about Kiddyland Movies, Moving Panoramas and Other Curiosities. I had to stop myself from getting into the history and technology of lantern slides, but they are a related spectacle. Maybe your students want to make a crankie like Red Grooms!

These are fascinating! How had I never heard of Lantern Slides before? (I "may" have now bid on some on Ebay--be careful.) Many of them could act as story prompts for young writers. I also have ideas about students creating their own Lantern Slides and then displaying them. They love reading in the dark with flashlights...so, this would definitely appeal to them. Thank you for opening my eyes to this fascinating piece of history!

All this talk of lantern slides prompted me to dig out an old Norwegian family trunk in my basement in search of a long-ago memory - a memory of a first visit to an antique toy store in Paris when I was living and teaching there in the 1970s! Every time my husband and I return to Paris, we visit the same antique toy store near the Luxembourg Gardens. It has changed hands in the decades since our first visit, but the contents and the look have hardly changed at all.

Why did I open that old trunk? Because I remembered buying three hand-painted lantern slides, and I was pretty sure I would find them in that trunk. I hope you enjoy them!

You can see that some of the blackout paint has come off the last slide, as has some red wax used to fix a crack in the glass. I am guessing that these slides were used to entertain children and to tell stories of the characters in them.

The toy store also has a beautifully preserved and quite expensive magic lantern on display, along with dozens of painted glass slides that were probably never inserted into the kinds of wooden frames you see in the photos above. Some of the newer (that's a relative term, I'm sure) slides look more like comic strips with multiple painted cels. I don't really know if they would work in that original magic lantern.

Those are lovely little pieces of art Mary Johnson . How wonderful that you have them!

I like Soline Holmes ’s idea of having students make their own lantern slides. As an introduction to students, an educator might discuss the significance of the Riis slides that Stacie Moats linked from the Library. If you read the book in the Library of Congress The Photo Miniature that Danna Bell resourced for us above, you can get the slide dimensions.

From there, students or schools that have access to a iPad can set a slide app to those dimensions with a black background and draw on “a piece of glass.” They might even put a favorite Library of Congress primary source on the slide to copy or outline over with their finger or digital pencil. Then on a lantern slide “share” day, they could be displayed on a projector. Having students create a modern replica might enhance the history and important role those slides and the technology made in the past.

This is wonderful! Thank you for starting the discussion @WendyStephens, and thank you for culling all of our responses, Cheryl. (I won the ebay auction so should have some lantern slides arriving next week!!!...squeeee!) I love all of the lesson plan ideas and am definitely trying this out sometime before the end of the year. I shall report back!

Wonderful Soline Holmes - Looking forward to your report!

These are so beautiful! Thank you for sharing them with us. What is the name of the antique toy store?

Haha. Are you going there to buy a magic lantern? Below is a Google Maps screen capture of the antique toy store's facade. I'm not sure it has a name! Maybe just "Livres et jeux anciens?" Except that this name does not show up in a Google search as an antique toy store. The address is near 29 rue de Condé - first block walking away from the Jardin du Luxembourg. Just look for the dark green shop front on your right!

Well now that I know it is old toys AND books, I am even more intrigued. This looks like such a gem! Thank you!

What treasures, and what perfect content for teachers. I am thrilled you were able to share those, and your Parisian haunts, @ Mary Johnson

I am wishing that I could click my heels 3x and be in Paris to go into that antique toy store! Mary's colorful slides look very similar to some of the ones that Terry used in his lantern show at the Library--very entertaining for all ages! Thanks, everyone, for sharing your related resources and teaching ideas!

I came across this lithograph from 1838 which gives an idea of how these early, non-photographic lantern slides were used. Yes, I went to a primary source to gain insight about a primary source.

Spooner, William, Active , Publisher. Spooner's protean views, no. 5. The magic lantern. , 1838. [London: W. Spooner, 377 Strand, London, ?] https://www.loc.gov/item/2016645691/ .

Wonderful find Cate Cooney !

Now that you have us all shopping eBay and checking antique shops for lantern slides and photocroms, let's keep our eye out for some lithophanes as well. They won't look like much, just a bas-relief porcelain tile.

When you light it from behind, you'll get a highly detailed image.

I learned about them when the I had my library join the Lithophane Society to get their annual newletter for our collection.

https://www.lithophanemuseum.org/about

https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/art/2019/08/10/all-about-eggs-show-toledo-museum-of-lithophanes/stories/20190811008

These are so cool! Another medium about which I did not know. I am wondering if people/antique stores who own these know about their magical qualities. Thank you for sharing this!

Lantern slides in popular culture! HBO has a new Julian Fellowes show, The Gilded Age, and two of the servant characters go to see a Lantern Show in Episode 3. The scene-setting really does a wonderful job showing the projection manipulation along a grooved track (using an image of a locomotive hurtling at the audience for the full effect), with musical accompaniment.

I am so glad I knew a little bit about this moment in technology before I happened upon that scene....

I have been wanting to watch The Gilded Age. Now that I know there is a scene with Lantern Slides, it is at the top of my list!

I can't say it's the best television show I've ever seen, Soline Holmes , but there are sprinkles of historical content throughout

It is on my list to watch Wendy Stephens so thanks for the tip on Episode 3. If you get the New York Times there is an interesting review:The Gilded Age Explores a Rarely Seen Chapter of Black History.

A friend sent me this picture of a young girl, dated from the 18th century and acquired in 1811, carrying a lantern for lantern slides, seen in the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. I think it is fascinating that it is a yound girl poised for performance.

I have pasted the gallery information below:

Artist: French School

Date: 18th Century

Location: Gallery 11

Dimensions: 24.3 x 20.3 cm

Materials: Oil on canvas on panel

Acquisition: Bourgeois Bequest, 1811

Accession number: DPG345

Girl with a Magic Lantern

Carrying her magic lantern on her back, this young girl travels from town to town in order to provide entertainment for the masses. A predecessor of cinema, magic lanterns were an early type of projector invented in the late sixteenth century. Translucent painted sheets of glass placed inside the lantern created fantastic images that could be projected on a large scale for all to see. This popular form of entertainment was often featured in travelling fairs and used to create supernatural illusions such as images of the devil, phantoms, or ghosts.

Until 1880, this tiny painting was attributed to the French artist Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) but is probably the work of an eighteenth-century French painter inspired by Chardin’s scenes of everyday life.

Girl with a Magic Lantern

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