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 Free Institute of Science as we showcase glass lantern slides from six local special collections!

In the spirit of lantern exhibition culture, this salon will bring together unique and rarely-seen images presented in the context for which they were originally created. Viewers will join two scientists on their 1937 trip to Mexico to conduct fieldwork, witness the emergence of a new parish in 1919 North Philadelphia, experience the beginning days of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, get a glimpse of the inner-workings of famed stained glass artist Nicola D'Ascenzo and his studio, and so much more!

This salon will include presentations from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the American Philosophical Society, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, New Jersey State Archives, and the Wagner Free Institute of Science.

Register Here

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