The Magic Lantern Slides

Three boys, Benares
Feb.1895

Unlike the printed Photochroms, of which a few thousand impressions could be made, the magic lantern slides were individual, hand-painted works. These glass slides were made for projection on a large screen for audiences in rural and urban America. After Jackson returned to America, he used these slides as part of a lecture tour he called "100 Minutes in Strange Lands."

Magic lanterns are the antecedents of the slide projector, and can be traced back to Europe in the 17th century, if not to shadow plays common around the world. During the 1890's, magic lanterns were in high fashion as an extension of photography. They were also popular for religious art, animations and elaborate visual tricks that pre-figured motion pictures, which were invented in 1895.

Pangborn in Baluchistan
Jan. 1895

The glass slides for Jackson's shows were 3.25 inches wide by 4 inches long. Projected as double slides for an audience with a stereopticon projector, they could be enormous and seem three dimensional. Details like a man high on the mast of a sailboat could best be appreciated greatly magnified. Jackson selected appropriate shots for colorization as glass slides. Most never appeared in Harper's Weekly.

Like the Photochroms, the magic lantern slides form a unique photographic record of the Indian subcontinent a century ago. Some of the colors Jackson used are traditional 19th century hues, others come from Jackson's careful notes. His selection for the tone of certain brick or sari could be very close to the original.

Hundreds of magic lantern slides will be presented on the CD-ROM. Users will be shown how the slides were colorized. Like the photographs, they will be available individually, and as part of the narrative movies that follow Jackson's route.

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