The Optical Magic Lantern Journal 1893 to 1903

The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger (OMLJ) was a British trade monthly published from 1889 to 1903. Its remit included the projected image trade starting with the magic lantern and continuing with the emerging cinema as well as photography, during the heyday of the hand camera and extended through lighting technology and general science. OMLJ featured news and opinions from each of the worlds and through its correspondence and advertising pages provides a unique insight into each of these areas at an important point in their history.

Copies of the OMLJ are extremely rare. There are only a few bound volumes in existence and most have had their advertisements removed. For the first time this DVD presents the complete run of 160 issues of the OMLJ with the original advertisements. Over 5,000 pages have been scanned at high resolution and converted to PDF format. They are accompanied by a searchable full content listing organised by title, type of item and author/contributor to help the reader locate information within the journal pages. This is accompanied by biographical and company data.

This DVD will be of interest to historians and researchers investigating the magic lantern, popular photography and early cinematography. It reproduces:
· Over 5000 pages from 1889 to 1903
· Editorial columns covering everything from dissolving lantern slides to hand cameras amd early motion picture projectors; advertisements from all the major lantern slide and photographic manufacturers of the period; a fascinating small ads and correspondence columns
· Additional biographical and company information to add context and historical information to the original text
· An easy tool to help locate information
· High resolutions scans of each page which can be printed off

DVD ROM, 5000+ pages

The Bamforth Company of Holmfirth, Yorkshire (better known as a major producer of sentimental and comic 'seaside' postcards throughout the 20th century), made hand-coloured photographic slides on a commercial scale from the mid-1880's until the start of the First World War.

This DVD-ROM presents the first illustrated catalogue of the Company's entire lantern slide production, including:
- a full listing of all 1,400 Bamforth slide sets known to have existed, with dates, lists of individual slides and other supporting details
- over 4.000 images of slides (about 20% of Bamforth's entire output)
- copies of around 600 readings, songs and other texts that accompanied the slides
- details of the people, companies and other organisations responsible for producing and distributing all this material
- a fully illustrated booklet giving the background to the Bamforth Company and the history of photographic slides



Compiled by Richard Crangle and Robert MacDonald

DVD-ROM, 4000+ illustrations, 2009.

Uniform in format with the main volume, this new book adds to The Lantern Image a further 150 references to early illustrations of the magic lantern dated between 1684 and 1901, including reproductions of the vast majority of these. As in the original volume, the illustrations are produced to a very high standard, giving a fascinating insight into the development of the lantern and its uses.




Compiled by David Robinson.

32pp, 150 illustrations, paperback, 2009.
ISBN 978 0 9510441 7 9

Uniform in format with the main volume, this new book adds to The Lantern Image a further 88 references to early illustrations of the magic lantern, including reproductions of the vast majority of these. As in the original volume, the illustrations are produced to a very high standard, giving a fascinating insight into the development of the lantern and its uses. Further supplements are envisaged in future as more images come to light.



Compiled by David Robinson.

24pp, 70 illustrations, paperback, 1997.
ISBN 0 9510441 3 3.

Thirty two essays by leading writers in the field present a rich and varied series of a still little known medium, enlivened by over 280 illustrations. The book is organised in four interrelated and overlapping sections, covering the main areas of lantern use, its applications in different cultures, examples of particular use and, finally, the lantern's continued influence after the exaggerated reports of it's 'death' at the end of the nineteenth century. This is an exploration of a fascinating history, but one which emphasises the lantern as a living medium that still plays a role in the culture of today.




Edited by
Richard Crangle, Mervyn Heard
& Ine van Dooren

286pp, 280 illustrations
Paperback 2005
ISBN 0 951044168

Please note, the remaining copies are slightly imperfect with either 'slight markings on cover', 'warped boards' or ' slight wrinkling of pages'. This is a new reduced price to reflect the condition.

We regret that this book cannot be mailed to Canada. Please contact us for full details.


The Encyclopaedia of the Magic Lantern is the Society's most ambitious project to date.We have attempted to provide a comprehensive reference source to the history, technology, uses and aesthetics of the optical lantern in its many forms.
The alphabetical entries cover a wide range of subjects: inventors and patentees, makers and merchants, showmen, writers and lecturers; the fascinating variety of styles and shapes of lanterns, with all their delightful and exotic names; the ingenious mechanisms of slides; the organisations that used lanterns for education, propaganda or religious persuasion; and of course the collectors, collections and museums.
The book is not just focused on Europe, you will find much about America and fascinating new insights into lanterns in Japan and Australia.




Edited by David Robinson, Stephen Herbert & Richard Crangle

360pp Hardback 2001
ISBN 0 9510441 5 X

This lavishly illustrated book covers the two hundred and fifty years between the development of the first slide projector and the movie projector. It includes an extensive History of the Magic Lantern by John Barnes and articles on Limelight, Fantasmagoria and many others, by members of the Magic Lantern Society.



Edited by Dennis Crompton, Richard Franklin, & Stephen Herbert.

96 pp., Paperback, 1997.
ISBN 0 9510441 4 1

A limited edition of bound copies of the Society's New Magic Lantern Journal. The books contain many learned, personal and often humorous articles by members of the society, as well as book reviews and occasional reprints from old publications. Each volume contains three issues of the Journal.

A limited edition of bound copies of the Society's New Magic Lantern Journal. The books contain many learned, personal and often humorous articles by members of the society, as well as book reviews and occasional reprints from old publications. Each volume contains three issues of the Journal.