Magic lantern - Just a lot of magic lantern slide sets depicting Biblical stories.

part 1.

A rather extensive collection of magic lantern slide sets depicting Biblical stories

Though the magic lantern in its first two centuries does not seem to have been widely used in a religious context - the real expansion came just in the second half of the 19th century – it appears to have been one of the few practices which continued for any length of time into the 20th century. Evangelical religious societies and temperance groups like the Salvation Army and the Band of Hope, recognised the magic lantern as an useful instrument to illustrate children’s Sunday school stories, a lecture in the church hall, or a prayer meeting held in a public venue. In England even a centre of operations for the sale and hire of lanterns and sacred slides was founded: The Church Army Lantern Department. This organisation stocked several kinds of magic lanterns together with all the auxiliary equipment and produced slides at a rate of 1, 000 a week. This resulted in 175,000 slides of sacred subjects alone, and a separate catalogue of secular subjects. The range of religious subjects available as magic lantern slides was almost unlimited: Old and New Testament stories, scenes from the life of Jesus and other biblical figures, typical Sunday school stories like parables, illustrated hymns, allegorical narratives and much more.

A number of organisations made eager use of the magic lantern for missionary purposes. David Livingstone, the well known explorer and missionary, described the magic lantern as his ‘most valuable travelling friend’. Once the images he showed the local people of Africa, evoked unexpected emotions: a scene of Abraham about to slaughter his son caused the audience to run in panic.
A complementary aspect to missionary use of the lantern was showing images of the mission’s work back home in lecturers, advocating their necessity.

The Talents Seven wonderful magic lantern slides of a set of probably nine. The set is made by the Riley Brothers and signed by the artist who painted them: T. Corson. The story is the Biblical parable of 'The Talents' (Mathew 25: 14 - 30): “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property."



Joseph






The Biblical story of Joseph. Complete set of 12 square magic lantern slides. Maker unknown.
The life of Moses Set of twelve square slides made by Theobald & Co., England. Theobald transfer slide sets number 170.

1. The Finding of Moses.	2. Portrait of Pharaoh.	3. Hebrew Slaves in Egypt.

4. Jehovah appears to Moses in the Bush of Fire.	5. Moses before Pharaoh.	6. The Egyptians Drowned in the Red Sea.

7. Moses strikes the Rock and the water gushes forth.	8. The Worship of the Golden Calf.	9. Moses presents the Tables of the Law.

10. Return of the Spies from the Promised Land.	11. The Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness.	12. Moses views the Promised Land.
De Goede Herder (The Good Shepherd) Set of nine slides made by the Dutch glass painter Van Staveren.




Set of nine magic lantern slides made by the Dutch glass painter J.W.H.C. (Jacob Willem Hendrik Christiaan) van Staveren who made his lantern slides in the town of Gouda. Almost all slides of this set are signed with a triangular label in the bottom left-hand corner. A similar label with the title of the set and the slide number is at the bottom right of the slide.


Rescue the perishing A wonderful set of 5 magic lantern slides made by Riley Brothers, 1895, after the song of the same name by Fanny Crosby (1869). The slides measure 3.25 inches (8,2 cm) square. "The verse is printed in extra large type and a suitable picture is framed by a border of natural flowers. Most artistic.” (Catalogue). Slide titles: 1. The chained man. 2. The Prodigal's return. 3. Bunyan as a roystering youth. 4. Bunyan and the godly women. 5. The Crucifiction.



More biblical stories....