Thaumatrope The invention of the thaumatrope, whose name means "turning marvel" or "wonder turner," has often been credited to the astronomer Sir John Herschel.  However, it was a well-known London physicist, Dr. John A. Paris, who made this toy popular.  Thaumatropes were the first of many optical toys, simple devices that continued to provide animated entertainment until the development of modern cinema.  

A unique 18th century slide viewer and magazine This is an attempt by an 18th century craftsman to provide a magazine viewing system for vues d’Optique. He has invented an ingenious way of mounting slides on either side of wooden sliding boards, thus being able to show 44 slides in the one compact reversible magazine.

Viewing Box

Vues d’optique As their French name implies, vues d’optique are hand-colored etchings and engravings intended to be viewed through a convex lens. The lens would heighten the strong lines of perspective and bright hues that characterized these prints, so that the viewer’s perception of the scene’s depth was enhanced, making it seem more three-dimensional. In many vues d’optique parts of the scene were cut out and the holes backed with translucent colored papers, so that when the print was backlit, an illuminated night scene appeared.

Camera Lucida

Claude Glass Manufactured in England in the 18th century, the Claude glass was standard equipment for Picturesque tourists, producing instant tonal images that supposedly resembled works by Claude. “The person using it ought always to turn his back to the object that he views,” Thomas West explained in his Guide to the Lakes. “It should be suspended by the upper part of the case…holding it a little to the right or the left (as the position of the parts to be viewed require) and the face screened from the sun.” --Victoria & Albert Museum

Zograscope In the 18th and 19th centuries a device with a lens and mirror called the zograscope was used to give an illusion of depth to hand colored engravings called vue d’optique prints. The zograscope is placed over a hand colored print so that the print is reflected in the mirror held at an angle. The spectator looks into the magnifying lens on the front of the instrument to view the reflection. The lens and mirror impart a quality of depth to the flat print.

Megalethoscope

Moving Glass Lantern slides and Chromatropes Among crank-activated slides, chromatropes (a made-up term using the ancient Greek words for “turning colors”) projected on the screen large patterns of colors that appeared to move. The slides were made by placing glass slides with different painted patterns on top of each other.

Phenakistoscope In 1832, Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons introduced the phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer").  It was also invented independently in the same year by Simon von Stampfer of Vienna, Austria, who called his invention a stroboscope.  Plateau's inspiration had come primarily from the work of Michael Faraday and Peter Mark Roget (the compiler of Roget's Thesaurus).  Faraday had invented a device he called "Michael Faraday's Wheel," that consisted of two discs that spun in opposite directions from each other.  From this, Plateau took another step, adapting Faraday's wheel into a toy he later named the phenakistoscope.  

Zoetrope CENTURY = 19th DATE = n.d. MEDIUM = Wood, metal ARTIST = Unidentified TITLE = Zoetrope CENTURY = 19th COLLECTION = GC138 Optical Devices and Views Collection DATE = n.d. MEDIUM = Wood, metal NOTES = Unsigned. Wooden base with deep [19 cm] free-spinning, slotted metal cylinder. Accompanied by 13 unique animation strips. REFERENCE = Basil Harley, Optical Toys (Shire Publications, 1988). REFERENCE = Hermann Hecht Pre-Cinema History (NY: Bowker, 1993). SIZE.PLATE = 33 [base to top of cylinder] x 25.5 cm [base diameter] SIZE.SHEET = 29.8 [cylinder diameter]

Praxinoscope ARTIST = Reynaud, Paris Anon TITLE = Praxinoscope CENTURY = 19th COLLECTION = GC138 Optical Devices and Views Collection DATE = ca. 1877 MEDIUM = Wood, metal, mirror NOTES = Patented by Emile in 1877. Accompanied by two sets of animation strips; one set has four unique strips with white background, the other has seven unique strips with black background. Instruction label pasted to bottom of base. Unsigned. Black wooden base with shallow [6 cm], free-spinning metal cylinder; 12-sided mirror fixed at center of metal cylinder. REFERENCE = Basil Harley, Optical Toys (Shire Publications, 1988). REFERENCE = Hermann Hecht Pre-Cinema History (NY: Bowker, 1993). SIZE.SHEET = 20 [base to top of mirror] x 15 [base diameter] cm SIZE.SHEET = 21.6 [cylinder diameter] cm SIZE.SHEET = 10.8 [mirror diameter] cm

Toy Praxinoscope

Peep egg viewer Peep egg viewers, also called alabaster eggs, were hand viewers used primarily as souvenirs near the turn of the century.  They are slightly larger than regular chicken eggs, which is likely why they were called peep eggs.

Magic Lantern projectors

Slide holders and other equipment

Toy Magic Lantern Projector

Electric Post Card Projector

Magic Lantern Projector

Praestantia The lantern slide projector, The Praestantia, made by Riley Brothers of Bradford, ca. 1910, and one box of colored glass slides have been transferred from the Julian street Papers (CO036). The projector and slides were used by Julian Street to illustrate his lectures on Japan.

20th Century Slide Projectors

Eastman Folding Box View Camera, with two lenses

View Camera

Stéréoscope Stereo camera or Vérascope Richard "The Verascope line of stereo cameras bridged from the 1890s to the 1930s, with numerous variations. They were made in 45x107mm, 6x13cm, and 7x13cm sizes." (McKeown, 1994). The Verascope system included such accessories as delayed-action and time releases, easily-ordered spare parts, plate and roll-film holders, supplementary lenses and screens, automatic printers, projectors, enlarging cones, and viewers, ranging from small hand-held to table-top with changing mechanisms.” –George Eastman House

Hand-held Stereoscopic Viewers

Stereo-Daguerreotypes

Stereoscopic Glass Slides

Panoramic print

Alphabetisches Myriorama

Anamorphic cylinders and prints An anamorphosis is a deformed image that appears in its true shape when viewed in a reflective cone or cylinder. According to Webster's 1913 Dictionary: A distorted or monstrous projection or representation of an image on a plane or curved surface, which, when viewed from a certain point, or as reflected from a curved mirror or through a polyhedron, appears regular and in proportion; a deformation of an image.

Moving Books

Tunnel books or Peep Shows

Metamorphosis Picture

Hologram A hologram is a three-dimensional image, created with photographic projection. The term is taken from the Greek words holos (whole) and gramma (message). The theory of holography was developed by Dennis Gabor in 1947.