Lezing met lichtbeelden ‘De oude Babylonisch-Assyrische beschaving’ door F. M. Th. Böhl, Groningen, 10 december 1920 & Leiden, ˃1927 Tijdens ons onderzoek in het archief van het Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten (NINO), in Leiden, stuitten wij op een manuscript van een lezing uit 1920 (herhaald in 1927 of later). Het behoort tot de nalatenschap…

This article discusses the added value of visualizing historical data, in particular the lantern lecture calendar of Haarlem during the social winter season of 1925/26. You access the article and the visualization here. da Rocha Gonçalves, Dulce. “Reconstructing a historical calendar: Haarlem and the lantern lecture season.” Sage Public Understanding of Science Blog, March 13,…

The article discusses the introduction of the optical lantern into higher education. It looks at the resistance that had to be overcome, namely its association with entertainment and also with children’s toys, and then looks at various disciplines that could benefit from projected images and belonged to the early adopters of the medium. Frank Kessler…

This article traces the debates on photography-based teaching aids that appeared in public discourse around 1910: their pedagogical and didactic merits, and their implementation. Clearly, reflections on film prevail, since there was much concern about its harmful effects on children. The first part of the text focuses on the rhetoricaland, sometimes, anecdotal level of the…

The article discusses similarities and differences concerning the position of the lecture in optical lantern and early film performances, in particular the temporal relations between the projected image and the oral comment. It looks at different examples and discusses some cases of combined slide and film projections. “The Voice of the Lecturer: Image-Word Relations in…

The Utrecht University professor of Chemistry, Ernst Cohen (1869-1944) gave lectures illustrated with an optical lantern between at least 1899 and1938. His presentations addressed different audiences, from colleagues at chemical conventions to members of societal and professional associations and audiences at adult education centres. The range of topics he covered was equally broad: from lectures…

When in 1921 the French micro-cinematographist Jean Comandon gave a series of illustrated lectures in the Netherlands, a newspaper reported that Comandon showed “‘living’ jitter-pictures” – that is: films – “instead of the usual lantern slides”. To consider this as a remarkable fact, the author of the article clearly must have expected slide projections as…

While part of the research project ‘Projecting knowledge’ focuses on academic staff providing extramural, illustrated public lectures and courses, it will also deal with a few individuals who worked largely outside the academy, yet shared their scientific insights with the public at large. One of these case studies, published elsewhere, was devoted to dr. Paul…

The series of Working papers is meant to explore areas of interest to the research project Projecting knowledge—the magic lantern as a tool for mediated science communication in the Netherlands, 1880-1940. Documents and literature are reported and discussed, and ideas are elaborated; as well pointers to further materials for research may be suggested that fall…

The ghost-themed optical exhibition was very popular in the nineteenth century: from Robertson’s Phantasmagoria in post-Revolutionary Paris to Pepper’s Ghost at the London Polytechnic in the 1860s, audiences rushed to witness the ghostly demonstrations, also known as ghost lectures. Recently, scholars such as Bernard Lightman and Iwan Rhys Morus have argued for a re-evaluation of…