Magic Lanterns: The Birmingham Connection

Birmingham has always been fertile territory for the magic lantern; both as a venue for shows, and as a place of manufacture. The Library of Birmingham remains home to one of the UK’s largest collections of photographic lantern slides, and in this short talk Pete James (Curator of Photography Collections at the Library) will explore how the collection came about. He’ll also look at the role of Birmingham Photographic Society in popularising the lantern, as well as later proto-cinematic devices like the mutoscope.