Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
July 5, 1822
Primary Source Reference:
National Gazette and Literary Register (Philadelphia), 5 July 1822
Additional Source Text:
The National Gazette and Literary Register (Philadelphia), 30 Aug 1822, reported that "Amusing Grotesque objects will be exhibited by means of the Magic Lanthorn."
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 3 Nov 1821.
