PRE-CINEMA HISTORY

During 1993-4, the Library acquired a number of materials that are representative of some of the devices and 19th century innovations that foreshadowed the cinema. These items add to some similar type material in the Theatre Collection (such as the Alexander Black slides for his 1894 magic lantern show 'Miss Jerry') and in Graphic Arts (such as flip books.) Optical devices added to the Graphic Arts Collections has been the following: an 18th century optical diagonal machine complete with a build-in box of 40 vues d'optique issued by the English printer/ publisher C. Dicey, also a zograscope, a praxinoscope, two magic lanterns, several specialized vues d'optique locally called 'hold-to-light.' For particulars about these items see Hermann Hecht, Pre Cinema History (New York: Saur, 1993) and C. J. Kaldenbach, "Perspective Views" in Print Quarterly (1985).

Also available is a glimpse of the some of the holdings of optical devices in Graphic Arts as of September, 2005. [The link is a Power Point slide show.]