Lantern Slides

It is difficult to attribute specific lantern slides to those who took the photographs other than Leo Farmar. As photography was becoming more accessible, several members of staff could have taken them. Moore would have had to prepare slides of orchids in flower before his 1907 talk. We can be sure that not all of the orchids mentioned flowered in the 6 months prior to his September visit to London.

The lantern slide has its origins in the 17th century when optical viewing devices were developed. These came to be known as “magic lanterns.” The earliest slides for magic lanterns consisted of hand-painted images on glass, projected by travelling showmen telling stories about the images.

In 1848 brothers, Ernst Wilhelm and Friedrich Langenheim invented the first photographic lantern slides, named Hyalotypes. They were the first to put a positive photographic image onto glass and patented the process in 1850.

Using black and white photography, the slides consist of two sheets of glass, one of which has the image on one side, and the other which covers the image, and bound with a black paper tape. A colour option was available by hand-colouring the images. During the 1880s and 1890s over 30 firms were engaged in the production of lanterns and slides in London.

Masdevallia velifera

Black and white lantern slide. ca. 1900.

Frederick Moore describes the orchid in 'Lesser Known Orchids', 'Masdevallia velifera seems to have been faily common in cultivation some twenty-five years ago, but it is now extremely rare. This can scarcely be wondered at, as it has not much to recommend it. The very colour of the flower - a dull lurid brown, with a shining surface - seems to indicate evil, and as far as the smell is concerned it certainly is evil...'.