Abstract
This article proposes methods to trace media history through material objects that build on archival practices. It discusses the character of information derived from the object and other related sources, to outline possibilities for media-historical research connecting multiple collections to create large sets of data. The aim of this article is twofold: first, I share practical knowledge about identifying lantern slides of commercially distributed slide sets, to generalise an understanding of identification and evaluation from both an archival and a scholarly perspective. Combined documentation of information from various sources (catalogues, lantern slides, trade press, lecture material, readings, related media) is often necessary to correctly identify lantern slides. Second, I propose criteria for research infrastructures to incorporate data documentation towards comparative research designs. The enormous dispersion of lantern slides over many collections leads scholars to build their own corpora from objects held in various collections, which can be ameliorated with standardised descriptors across collections. Further, new research questions tracing synchronic and diachronic dispersion could be asked with the collaborative documentation of a larger set of data, for example, assessing the geographic distribution and popularity of slide sets, reconstructing trade networks or the migration of images across various media forms. Altogether, collaborative documentation and search could lead to knowledge about the formation of canons of shared visual knowledge. Research into the dissemination of slide sets and the popularity of displayed motifs cannot be restricted to either ‘distant readings’ or ‘close readings’ exclusively, and benefits from the ability to switch between close inspections of the object as well as networked sources.
Highlights
Magic lantern slides were an important mass-medium and means for mass-communication
When we know that images were disseminated internationally and across media, we should question the usefulness of media form or the national as default units in early popular visual culture research
Concerning the national framework for historical commerce and contemporary archival work, lantern slides and the corresponding material, even the educative series, were mostly produced by local manufacturers with the commercial ambition to sell their products to an international market through a number of local resellers
Summary
Magic lantern slides were an important mass-medium and means for mass-communication. I included them in my research into visual knowledge about the Netherlands and the Dutch in the long nineteenth century because I was interested in images that circulated on a large scale across various kinds of popular media formats. Contextual knowledge about the relation between the stereophotos on glass and photographic lantern slides was required in order to come to the conclusion that information on lantern slides could be found by turning to another medium This knowledge led me to consult catalogues on stereoscopic images on glass and stereophotographs on glass and on paper in three collections, and to discussions with three private collectors of stereophotographs. McAllister in New York, allows me to study the available lantern slide sets diachronically These resellers listed the sets ‘Hollande’ by Lévy, Ferrier and Soulier and ‘Picturesque Holland’ – sometimes under the titles ‘A Tour in Holland’ or ‘Holland’ – and hardly any other slide sets with the Netherlands as subject matter. In order to trace the transmedial dissemination of mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth-century images in diachronic media historical research, good documentation of lantern slide sets (including the numbers of the photo negatives), in combination with their titles and a documentation of the images, is necessary. Results of such studies will provide insights into networks of production and dissemination, publishing strategies and the dissemination range of images
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