All Round the World – Magic Lantern Slide Evenings
- 15th August 2018
Last month we took the lantern slides taken by Arthur Henry Whinfield out to two venues to recreate the presentations he used to provide to local people in Worcester over 100 years ago.
We’ve shared before on our blog about the project to conserve and digitise @ 2,000 glass slides taken and collected by the man. The work has been kindly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This work also enables us to share the slides more widely, which we have been doing in creative ways with artists, especially Rob Hewitt of Redhawk Logistica, who helped us draw up the project after getting excited when seeing the slides whilst working with us on another project.
We wanted to try to recreate what the original lantern slides presentations would have been like, so using one of Whinfield’s surviving scripts which we produced ‘All Round the World’, presenting some of the slides he would have used to take people on a voyage around the world.
Claines Church
For the first event we went to Claines Church, home church of Whinfield, where he played the organ and head chorister. We then went to Huntingdon Hall in Worcester for a second event, a former chapel which is now an arts venue and which provide a great atmosphere.
Finding the script was fantastic, as it gave us an insight into the sequences of slides and how he presented them. Poet Paul Conneally took the role of Whinfield and was a great compere. He took a bit of artistic licence to add a poetic flavour to the evening.
Huntingdon Hall
The second part of the performances featured slides relating to Claines at the first screening, and a more general selection at Huntingdon Hall, including some of his astronomy slides. These were accompanied by organist Hannah Gibson, which we thought was appropriate since Whinfield was an organist and organ builder, so provided background music whilst the audience enjoyed the other slides.
We had some great feedback from the audiences. As well as enjoying the slides themselves, which took people back to another age, they also enjoyed the ambience created.
As the project moves towards its conclusion we will be working on uploading the slides onto the Magic Lantern Society’s website. They have been cleaned, conserved and digitised, so this will enable them to be enjoyed by a far wider audience worldwide, which is especially useful since the Collection is global. We will also be taking some of the slides to the Worcestershire Archaeological Society in December when Tim Bridges will join Justin as we share slides of Worcestershire Churches and Tim will share his extensive knowledge. Please keep an eye on our blog and social media for details of when they become available.
Thank you to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding the project.
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