Lantern slide projections at the Paris Société de Géographie

Résumé En

Founded in 1821 with the objective of benchmarking geographical progress, the Société de Géographie also sought to promote geographical education and to inspire travel to little known lands. The society’s library expanded through bequests and reciprocal publication exchange agreements, and from the mid-1870s photographs were added to the existing collections of travelogues, scientific publications, maps and atlases. James Jackson, the Society’s librarian and himself a photographer, was the driving force behind the founding of the photograph collection. He was supported in this by Charles Maunoir, the Secretary of the society. In parallel, from 1875 the society’s meetings were illustrated with photographic lantern slides projected by the dedicated lanternist, Alfred Molteni, descended from a long line of optical instrument makers. Eventually, each meeting came to be illustrated by lantern slides projected via a magic lantern. Today the society’s collection of c.20 000 lantern slides are held in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France under the responsibility of the Maps and Plans department. The slides are currently being digitized.