Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
November 3, 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 3 Nov 1821
Additional Source Text:
"Magic Lanthorn will be exhibited this evening, at eight o'clock, in the Philadelphia Museum, and will continue to be exhibited every Saturday evening. Admittance, as usual, 15 Cents -- Children half price, under 12 years."
Notes:
The magic lantern worked much as a slide projector works, illuminating and enlarging scenes painted on glass slides and also projecting transparencies.The device became popular in large theaters with the use of strong light sources such as the Argand lamp, invented in 1784, which Charles Willson Peale used for his moving pictures in 1785. Rubens Peale, who may have seen it used in London in 1802 by the famous French showman Paul de Philipstal, began its use in the Philadelphia Museum in 1820. See Selected Papers, 3: 814n, 4: 133n-134n.
See also the entry for Magic Lanthorn under date 5 July 1822.
