Magic lantern - Racial images on magic lantern slides. part 2.

Racial images on magic lantern slides.
part 2.


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This item includes words or images that may be racially or otherwise offensive. They are included here as historical reproductions from a different period with different standards, and do not indicate any support or approval of such ideas and statements by the webmaster/author of this site. They show the role that non-western figures often played in magic lantern stories and the way they were depicted on the slides.
The Pan of Batter. Three comic Black Americana magic lantern slides 8.2 x 8.2 cm.

The n******s and the Ostrich.


1. They've started what looks like an ostrich, I guess, / It might have looked more so I really confess.	2. And so they pulled up as you see in this view, / And as you see too, in a terrible stew.	3. They waited and watched till the bird once again / Her eggs left behind to roam over the plain.

4. And also why one of them points to his skull, / If not, why you must be, I think, very dull.	5. And here you may see, when she comes back again, / How cautious she is, for it seems very plain.	6. And two pairs of black hands are presently found / To seize on her legs, and pin to the ground.
		Made by Bamforth & Co., England. Complete set of 8 slides, c. 1893.
7. She no sooner felt the restraint, and the cause, / Than deep in their bodies she buried her claws.	8. They crawled to their huts on their hands and their knees, / With a very great loss of conceit, if you please.

The Tiger and the n*****s. Manufacturer: Bamforth & Co., England, 1892. Unfortunately the set is incomplete; only the last three slides are here. Fortunately those are the slides that show the trick. From the readings we know the accompanying captures:
1. And nearer and nearer he stealthily creeps while each nigger on him a watchful eye keeps.	2. But when he alighted no niggers were there for they in their turn took a flight in the air.	3. This time, he determines that higher he'll rise, and thus catch the foe as it over him flies.

4. They fall on the ground and roll out of the way, and once more the tiger is balked of his prey.	5. The strong and sharp spear through his body has passed, and puss with whole coat is secured at last.	6. And each catching hold of the end of the spear, their burden bear homeward with many a cheer.
A long magic lantern slides depicting the same scenes from above, now with one preceding scene. Probably there is no slide that shows the scenes 1 and 2.
Simple single slipping slide made by the German manufacturer Ernst Plank: Vom Regen in die Traufe (Fall out of the Frying Pan into the Fire). Made of tin and sold in sets of 12 'Komische Verwandlungsbilder in Blechrahmen'.



		Rastus' midnight raid: showing how a bogey appeared, and some honey disappeared. Manufacturer: York & Son, 8 slides 8.2 x 8.2 cm, around 1902.


A single lever mechanical slide depicting an African American banjo player serenading his sweetheart. The wooden frame measures approx. 7” by 4” overall with the central glass slide area being approx. 3" in diameter. The slide uses two discs of glass. One glass is stationary and painted with an image of a comic, stereotypical black man who holds a banjo and stands beneath the window of a house. In the window we see his lovely sweetheart. The second painted disc features an image of the right arm and hand of the Banjo Player as well as the eye balls of both of the characters. This rotating disc is provided with lever attached to its brass rim. When the lever is moved up and down ever so slightly the minstrel player strums his banjo and the eyes of both the banjo player and his sweetheart waggle back and forth in time to the music.

Mr Bones & Mr Tambo. Four magic lantern slides c 1870's. Each slide measures 3¼ inches x 3¼ inches.

Only four of this rare set of eight magic lantern slides show the story in images; the other four show the matching texts.

He struck the wrong Head. Set of two slides made by Bamforth & Co., England, 1895.


	Ten Little N***** Boys.

	Complete set of 3 long magic lantern slides; each slide measures 8 inches by 2 3/8 inch (c. 20 x 6 cm). An interesting piece of social history, the rhyme being sung in music halls in the late 19th Century and also taught to children as a method of learning to count.
A short story in two magic lantern slides. A black man, a clock enthusiast, is chased by a white police officer, the two are stopped by a fire hydrant... Dimensions 8.2 x 8.2 cm. Manufacturer unknown.

David Livingstone. Glass magic lantern slide in a wooden frame. As a Christian missionary Livingstone used a magic lantern in Africa as a way to tell Bible stories. He had to explain to the frightened natives that there was no magic involved but only technology.	More........