Sarah Dellmann & Frank Kessler (ed.) A Million Pictures. Magic Lantern Slides in the History of Learning. New Barnet: John Libbey, 2020.

Proceedings from 2017 A Million Pictures conference in Utrecht.

Slides for the magic or optical lantern were a major tool for knowledge transfer in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Schools, universities, the church and many public and private institutions all over the world relied on the lantern for illustrated lectures and demonstrations. This volume brings together scholarly research on the educational uses of the optical lantern in different disciplines by international specialists, representing the state of the art of magic lantern research today. In addition, it contains a “lab section” with contributions by archivists, curators and performers reflecting on ways to preserve, present and re-use this immensely rich cultural heritage today.

The authors of this collection of essays are Richard Crangle, Sarah Dellmann, Ine van Dooren, Claire Dupré la Tour, Jennifer Durrant, Francisco Javier Frutos-Esteban, Anna Grasskamp, Emily Hayes, Erkki Huhtamo, Martyn Jolly, Joe Kember, Frank Kessler, Machiko Kusahara, Wing Ki Lee, Sabine Lenk, Carmen López-San Segundo, Ariadna Lorenzo Sunyer, Vanessa Otero, Daniel Pitarch, Jordi Pons Busquet, Montse Puigdevall, Angélique Quillay, Àngel Quintana, Nadezhda Stanulevich, Jennifer Tucker, Kurt Vanhoutte, Márcia Vilarigues, Joseph Wachelder, Artemis Willis, Suk Mei Irene Wong, Nele Wynants.