Lantern Slides

The Geographical Association was founded at a meeting held in the Common Room at Christ Church College, Oxford on the 20th May 1893.
Several "progressive teachers of geography" were taking up the ideas of Halford Mackinder and John Scott Keltie, including the use of the 'lantern projector'. During the 1890s there was heated debate about the use of these devices (perhaps mirroring the current debates over GIS, and the value of Interactive whiteboards) 
B Bentham Dickinson was an advocate of using lantern slides, but didn't have enough of his own, so in 1893 he attempted to exchange slides with other teachers, and a meeting was held which broadened out into the formation of an association to promote the teaching of geography.

At the weekend, I was in the loft sorting out the Christmas decorations and came across a bag of lantern slides, one of which is reproduced below. It's a glass slide about 6cm across, and features of an image of morainic features at a glacier margin.


What's nice is that the lantern slide was produced by George Philip and Son on Fleet Street, and one of the first benefits of being a GA member was a discount on lantern slides produced by this firm. In 1903, they also negotiated with the Ordnance Survey for a discount on the price of maps bought for educational use.

Information taken from "The Geographical Association: The First Hundred Years 1893-1993, by W.G.V. Balchin (Geographical Association, 1993)

What's interesting is that over 100 years later, teachers are still exchanging slides, but this time of the powerpoint variety, and all Year 7 pupils get a free map from the Ordnance Survey.

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