‘No branch of science enters more closely than Geography into the art of war’: The First World War, lantern slides and the Royal Geographical Society, London

Abstract

This article investigates the lantern slide collections of the London Royal Geographical Society (RGS), a prominent British society dedicated to the promotion of geographical exploration and science, across the period of the First World War. It outlines some of the salient features of the lantern slide collections and how they evidence the changing purposes of the RGS, conceptualizations of space and geography and their communities of producers and consumers from 1914 to 1918. The inclusion of illustrated war propaganda lectures in the Society’s popular evening meetings is discussed. The full admission to the Society in 1913 of women and their coming to prominence within RGS activities during the conflict is also explored. The use of lantern slides by female lecturers is investigated, as is the acquisition of their slides by the RGS. The focus in this period on subjects of aviation and human geography in the RGS Research Department lectures is also examined in relation to changing practices of exploration, representation and notions of science within British academia.