Annual Lantern Slide Salon

The Philadelphia Lantern Slide Salon takes place annually in October as part of Archives Month Philly. Each year it highlights historic glass lantern slides from the special collections of various Philadelphia-area cultural and educational institutions. Held in the Wagner’s Victorian-era lecture hall and using its original 1914 lantern projector, the Salon offers a rare opportunity to experience a lantern slide show with unique and rarely-seen images projected onto a large screen.

Lantern slides are transparent photographs developed on glass and projected with a “magic lantern” onto a large screen. Predating the motion picture, they were used widely in the 19th and early 20th century for entertainment and educational lectures. The Wagner has over 5,000 lantern slides, including many that were used to illustrate its free evening courses.

Philadelphia Lantern Slide Salon
Thursday 10/23/2025 6 - 7:30pm

Celebrate Archives Month Philly at the Wagner as we showcase glass lantern slides from our own collection as well as the special collections of local cultural institutions.

PREVIOUS PROGRAMS

  • 2024 Annual Lantern Slide Salon

    Thursday, October 10, 2024
    6 - 7:30pm at the Wagner

    Sit back and enjoy as as representatives from seven different regional cultural institutions use lantern slides to travel over and around the Swiss Alps; explore Palestine through the eyes of Khalil Raad, “Palestine’s first Arab photographer”; view hand-colored images of Philadelphia gardens while learning about the pioneering women who created them; survey early twentieth century insects of the Western United States; and so much more!

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  • Franklin’s First Arrival in Philadelphia. From the collections of the American Philosophical Society.

    2023 Annual Lantern Slide Salon

    Thursday, October 19, 2023
    6 - 7:30pm at the Wagner

    Celebrate Archives Month Philly at the Wagner as we showcase glass lantern slides from our own collection as well as the special collections of: the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the American Philosophical Society, The Historical Society of Frankford, the Penn Museum, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

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  • 2022 Annual Lantern Slide Salon

    Wednesday October 12, 2022
    6 - 7:30

    Predating the motion picture, lantern slides were used for entertainment and to illustrate educational programs. The Philadelphia Lantern Slide Salon will be held in the Wagner’s Victorian-era lecture hall using an historic lantern projector. Please join us for a rare treat as we revive an old technology in order to see culturally significant lantern slide collections from the libraries and archives of Philadelphia’s most distinguished institutions.

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  • Images from the Archives

    Wednesday October 20, 2021
    6:30 - 8pm

    Join us for an evening of illuminating images from three Philadelphia area archives and the stories they bring to light. The presentations will include “Two Women, One Garden: Selections from the Castaña Portfolio,” “Old Blockley: A Glimpse Into a Public Hospital at the Turn of the Century,” and “The Poetry and Science of Botanical Instruction at the Wagner Free Institute of Science.”

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