Before the advent of cinema, magic lantern shows provided popular public entertainment. One example from our collection tells a gripping Christmas tale.
Read about how a discovery in our collection helped illuminate a little-known part of Bradford history: the city’s role in the introduction of free school meals.
You might not realise it, but early British cinema and magic are very closely linked. Magicians used the new moving pictures as part of their shows; film-makers used the popularity of magicians to create appealing films.
Believe it or not, this grotesque and surreal lantern slide was a favourite at Victorian magic lantern shows—the forerunner to cinema whose popularity lasted for 300 years.
Colin Harding takes a look at the life of one of the legendary figures of Fleet Street, who always came back with the picture his editor wanted.
On 4 July 1862 Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Rev. Robinson Duckworth took three little girls—Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell—on a rowing trip up the Isis in Oxford.
Learn the basics of how to care for glass negatives, colour transparencies, lantern slides and photographic prints.