A glass photographic format popular in the late 1800s, lantern slides were projected onto a wall or a screen by a magic lantern projector with an internal light source. Typically manufactured in sets, these slides were used for both educational and entertainment purposes in public lectures and in-home displays.
Three collections of lantern slides have been digitized: Civil War scenes (Collection 738); Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and scenes from the French Revolution and life of Napoleon Bonaparte (Collection 787); and European views, Biblical stories, story illustrations, and humorous scenes (Collection 229).
The finding aid for Collection 229 is available at: http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0229.htm.
Lantern Slides 
