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Magic Lantern Society of the United States and Canada

@themagiclanternsociety

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Magic Lantern Society of the United States and Canada (est. 1979).

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Welcome! The Magic Lantern Society of the US and Canada (est. 1979) is a group that collects, preserves, performs, and shares information on the many devices that were used to entertain and educate audiences before the beginning of cinema. Our community enjoys biennial conventions, monthly and quarterly publications, and camaraderie dedicated to the love of magic lanterns and other early optical devices and screen-based arts. We are performers, collectors, scholars, artists, and enthusiasts. Follow us here for convention updates, member activity, and more! 🕯️✨

Check out:
- our website for more information and to become a member (new website coming next month!), & our archive of publications on the Internet Archive
- our facebook page for community conversation, questions and resources (open to all - members & non-members)
- our friends across the pond: the Magic Lantern Society UK 🖤 @magiclantern_society by @themagiclanternsociety

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6 months ago

🎇 Very exciting magic lantern shows coming up from MLS member Emma Strauss, and gorgeous advertising materials too! 🎇⚓️🐚

MLS community: Have an upcoming lantern show, lantern-adjacent expanded cinema or protocinema work? Send the details our way, and we’d love to share!

Emma Strauss’ brilliant WHALEBONES promo is based on the Kinora reel “Woman in a White Sailor Suit” est. 1900-1910 from @foticos.collection 🖤 by @themagiclanternsociety

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🖋️⭐️ Call for Submissions ⭐️✒️We are seeking submissions for The Magic Lantern Gazette, our quarterly print publication! Please send us your original research & writing on topics related to magic lanterns & early optical media and adjacent fields, including historical research, artistic research, technical research, theory & philosophy 📖 And check out our archive of publications on Archive.org! Included here, a few covers from our previous issues🖤

We welcome contributions that range from the following topics and beyond: Global histories of the Magic Lantern, Biographies of lanternists, Slide fabrication and coloring techniques, Technical aspects of the lantern, Performance histories, Theoretical and philosophical analysis, Media archaeology, Intersections of film and animation history, Personal experiences in collecting and performing, Contemporary lanternists & fine art, Precinema / Protocinema ⭐️ by @themagiclanternsociety

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Have you ever wanted to see a magic lantern show… in a cavern!? Check out this gorgeous banner by magic lantern society members @elliottschlemowitzmagiclantern advertising their upcoming show at Widow Jane Mine, a 19th-century natural cement mine in Rosendale, New York! This show is not to be missed 🦇🕯️💥🖤 August 15, 2026 at 3pm by @themagiclanternsociety

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3 months ago

Join our sister society @magiclantern_society across the pond in Birmingham, UK in celebrating their 50th anniversary at their 11th International Magic Lantern Convention 9-11 October 2026 🖤 It promises to be full of lantern shows, fabulous talks, sales tables, and spectacles and surprises! Find out more on the UK Society’s website, and hope to see you there 🕯️ (What a great year for magic lanterns - two conventions in one year!) 💫 by @themagiclanternsociety

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4 months ago

🪾Melissa Ferrari’s cryptozoological magic lantern show “Relict: A Phantasmagoria” - an experimental documentary performed with second-lanternist Zach Dorn
⚓️ Emma Strauss’ exquisite lantern show “Whalebones” based on an original short story, a tale of two women by the sea

Looking back at the contemporary original magic lantern shows presented at the 21st Magic Lantern Society Convention in Toronto, featuring handmade slides by the lanternists 🐚 by @themagiclanternsociety

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Looking back at some of the spectacular antique effects slides performed & shared at the 2026 Magic Lantern Society Convention! 19th-century special effects, here accompanied by descriptions from contemporary magic lantern slide catalogues from the Media History Digital Library 🖤
⭐️ Prof. Lindsay Lambert’s exquisite authentic Dance of the Witches slide
⭐️ Joel Schlemowitz’ skeleton dancer, a fabulous authentic choreutoscope
⭐️Prof. Lindsay Lambert’s reconstructions of an Eidotrope & Ross Wheel of Life

Advertisements from The Sciopticon Manual (1877) & the Newton Lantern Slide Catalogue (1920), courtesy of Lantern: Media History Digital Library by @themagiclanternsociety

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4 months ago

✉️ Mail day from the Magic Lantern Society! Our members receive print copies of our quarterly publication the Magic Lantern Gazette, which features original research and news articles. The most recent edition includes a fabulous feature on Houdini’s Spiritualist lantern lecture and a review of the Frontier Saloon at the wondrous @velaslavasay panorama 🖤 Join the MLS today if you’d like to receive the Gazette! Learn more on our website, including how to submit to our publications. We welcome submissions from members & non-members.

🔮 MAGIC LANTERN SLIDE OF A HARRY HOUDINI
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1924 AND SIGNED TO HIS FRIEND OSCAR TEALE, SHOWING HOUDINI AND ANNIE EVA FAY, THE MEDIUM, CRYSTAL BALL GAZING.

#magiclantern #precinema by @themagiclanternsociety

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4 months ago

Today I met the Magic Lantern Society President at the Aberfoyle Antique Show near Guelph, Ontario. We were checking out this beautiful American made Colt Magic Lantern with a French Darlot lens at one of the vendors on the field. If someone out there has info about this Lantern please let us know? The illuminant in the Lantern is a giant electric bulb - probably a 500 W bulb. @themagiclanternsociety @janelle.blankenship.3 @blankenship.lanterns @junglearrow by @themagiclanternsociety

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🕸️Our new magic lantern society website is live!🕸️ Now it should be easier to navigate our online offerings, including information about our publications, membership, conventions and active lanternists in our society. History sections & more resources coming soon. Visit magiclanternsociety.org 🌩️ by @themagiclanternsociety

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Tintypist Matt Schnittker @mschnitt at the 2026 Magic Lantern Society Convention at The Village at Black Creek 🎇 Matt captured tintypes of convention attendees and village residents, as well as some shots of the Black Creek Printing Office! taken in The Village at Black Creek by @themagiclanternsociety

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5 months ago