The optical lantern was the central medium through which Art History professor Willem Vogelsang (1875-1954) taught his students ‘how to see’. As the first ordinarius in Art History in the Netherlands, Vogelsang focused on creating the right educational setting to turn his students into professional art historians. In his lectures the optical lantern and its…

From the sensational ghost lecture of John Henry Pepper to Edison’s phonograph, and from illustrated astronomy lectures to the microscopic projection of the cholera bacillus, Dutchman L.K. Maju delivered popular scientific performances across the Netherlands, but also outside of its borders, an occupation spanning several decades. This article explores Maju’s transition from performing conjuring acts…

da Rocha Gonçalves, Dulce. “On the Trail of 19th Century Science Performers: The Case of L. K. Maju.” Sage Public Understanding of Science Blog (blog), October 21, 2020. https://sagepus.blogspot.com/2020/10/on-trail-of-19th-century-science.html. Complementary to the article Science between the fairground and the academy: The case of Dutch science popularizer L. K. Maju (1823–1886), the Sage Blog Public Understanding…

The following text is a working paper, which means that it is predominantly a ‘reconnaissance report’ prompted by the project’s first case study, art historian Prof. Dr. Willem Vogelsang. In fact, all three researchers of the project initially focused on this case, knowing that sufficient documentation and newspaper reporting on Vogelsang was available, or at…