‘What the Moon is Like’: technology, modernity, and experience in a late-nineteenth-century astronomical entertainment

Abstract

The magic lantern is often considered within the nexus of traditions and practices from which cinema emerged. But its performance in a late nineteenth-century astronomical entertainment gestures elsewhere. In 1892, Andrew Carnegie’s new Music Hall presented A Trip to the Moon, an elaborate illustrated lecture depicting an imagined journey to the moon and back. A Trip to the Moon employed a variety of techniques to realize a series of moving pictures of terrestrial and celestial phenomena, which were grounded in scientific accuracy, unfolded temporally, and represented the lunar situation in unprecedented ways. The production’s special effects, such as an earthrise and a solar eclipse viewed from the moon, were achieved by a sophisticated ensemble of established and emergent technology: multiple magic lanterns; mechanical effects slides; arc, foot and border lights; colored gels; screens; rheostats; and various stage machinery. State-of-the-art astrophotographic views were interspersed between the mounted scenes to complete a continuous, nonfiction Gesamptkunstwerk. This article elaborates A Trip to the Moon’s modes of representation and address to show how it mobilized new viewing positions and epistemes, while extending the lantern’s expressive range at the dawn of the twentieth century.