Friday, May 27, 2011

Egypt in the early 1900s

This series of photographs is fascinating. They're roughly a hundred years old, but for the most part, they could be a thousand years old. They're lantern slides, explained by Maria Popova at Brainpickings: "The lantern slide — a transparent image on glass that was magnified and projected onto a surface using a sciopticon 'magic lantern' — came of age shortly after it was first introduced by Philadelphia daguerreotypists William and Frederick Langenheim in 1849. The lantern slide greatly broadened the audience for photography, then still a young art, introducing it into academia and the cultural institutions of the day by allowing teachers and museum curators to illustrate their lectures and presentations with projected images."

View the photographs at Egypt in the Early 1900s: Rare Vintage Lantern Slides.

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