Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema

Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema

Consultant Editors:

Dr John Plunkett,
Department of English, University of Exeter

Dr Plunkett works on print and visual media between 1800-1910, and is currently preparing a book project provisionally entitled Optical Recreations, which will examine the aesthetics of panoramas, dioramas, peepshows, the stereoscope, and magic lantern performances.

Phil Wickham,
Bill Douglas Centre

Phil Wickham is Curator of the Bill Douglas Centre. Previously he was television curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive, and worked for many years at the BFI National Library.

Source Libraries:

The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, University of Exeter

Key Feature:

Original Archive Footage from the British Film Institute (BFI)

In a prestigious collaboration between the BFI and Adam Matthew Group, we include video clips of original archive footage from the earliest days of cinema. Our editorial team have worked with the BFI to select a range of different types of footage, allowing users to see the kinds of uses that film was employed for in the earliest days of its invention. This exciting addition is supported by a rich range of printed works and objects relating to cinema and pre-cinema history.

Nature of the Material:

The project consists of a wide range of primary source material, mostly digitised in colour, dating from the 18th century to the 1930s. There is an emphasis on visual sources, objects and rare printed material. All printed material is full-text searchable, and visual or manuscript material has been keyword indexed.

Document types include:

• Objects
• Games and toys
• Ephemera
• Rare books
• Periodicals
• Playbills and handbills
• Posters
• Prints
• Photographs
• Programmes
• Pamphlets

Scope of the Collection:

Part of the Victorian Popular Culture Portal – for more details on the contents of the portal, click here.

Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema explores the cultural history of optical entertainments from the 18^th century to the early 20^th century, illuminating the rich cultural and scientific history from which cinema was born. From shadow puppets to dioramas, and from zoetropes to Hollywood, the long and varied evolution of visual entertainments is represented through objects, ephemera and printed works.

The project benefits from innovative digital technologies which will bring to life the trickery and magic of many of the optical illusions and toys included here. 

Subjects covered include:

• Optical Illusions, including kaleidoscopes, metamorphic images and anamorphosis

• Panoramas and Dioramas, with programs, souvenirs, toy panoramas and protean views

• Magic Lantern Shows and Lectures, including projectors, slides, handbills and posters for performances, and lecture notes

• Moving Picture toys and techniques, such as the phenakistoscope, the zoetrope, flick books, and the work of early pioneers such as Eadweard Muybridge

• Peep Shows and Stereoscopes, including material on street entertainers and Raree Shows, peep eggs, parlour entertainments, and telescopic views

• Early Cinema, covering pioneers such as Edison and the Lumieré Brothers; early presentations in fairgrounds and music halls; the establishment of picturehouses and the emergence of film industries in Hollywood, Britain and Europe; the early stars of the ‘silver screen’, and the studios that made them

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