What is a magic lantern?

So glad you asked!

Magic lantern shows were early precursors to photography and film.

Magic lantern devices worked by shining a light through a painted glass plate and projecting the plate’s image on a nearby surface. Magic lantern shows began as displays of still images, but those plates could be strung together in a series so that the image appeared to move. Just like a flip book or a strip of film!

Magic lantern devices worked by shining a light through a painted glass plate and projecting the plate’s image on a nearby surface. Magic lantern shows began as displays of still images, but those plates could be strung together so that the image app
Magic lantern devices worked by shining a light through a painted glass plate and projecting the plate’s image on a nearby surface. Magic lantern shows began as displays of still images, but those plates could be strung together so that the image app
Because early magic lanterns used candles or other sources of live flame, the images would appear to shimmer and flicker in ethereal or spectral ways. This quality was one of the many reasons that magic lantern shows developed an association with t
Because early magic lanterns used candles or other sources of live flame, the images would appear to shimmer and flicker in ethereal or spectral ways. This quality was one of the many reasons that magic lantern shows developed an association with t
_Spirit Photography_ wood-cut engraving, Harper's Weekly, May 8, 1869.jpg
Can the living converse with the dead.jpg

Because early magic lanterns used candles or other sources of live flame, the images would appear to shimmer and flicker in ethereal or spectral ways.

This quality was one of the many reasons that magic lantern shows developed an association with the strange and otherworldly—with spiritualists and their seances, with stories of fairies and other magical creatures, with surrealism and phantasmagoria.