This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Shining Lights: Magic Lanterns and the Missionary Movement, 1839—1868

The Infant Samuel

This page is referenced by:

Visual Variation Comparing extant examples of Carpenter and Westley sliders to their descriptions in the catalog reveals the nature and degree of variation among extant sets. As a mechanical means to reproduce images, copperplate-printing ensured a high degree of continuity in the composition of the images. Trevor Beattie has performed the most extensive study of variations among extant Carpenter and Westley copperplate printed sets and the material through which to study their manufacture.[1] Differences among images in the sliders tend to fall into two categories: updated engravings and individual painting styles.

The catalog indicates that Carpenter and Westley drew heavily from illustrations in print for the other lecture series. The Kings of England lecture set, for example, copied the composition of Thomas Cadwell’s illustrations for David Hume’s History of England. The mirroring effect is probably a result of the engraving process. Like many of Carpenter and Westley’s sliders, the Kings of England, natural history, and scriptural sliders often forgo background scenery. This not only reduced the time it took to paint slides, but it also throws the figure into sharper relief. Unlike the Kings of England set, the images in the scriptural lantern lecture have no identifiable antecedent in print, so it is unclear to what extent they remediate a particular artists’ vision of these scenes. Extant examples of the scriptural sliders indicate that there were at least 53 different engravings used to produce the lecture. While they may not be considered particularly well-executed, both in their drawing and colorization, they do draw from the rich visual vocabulary of typological tradition religious painting and illustration. In this case, visual parallels between scenes from the New Testament and the Old Testament images convey the fulfillment of the covenant of works in the covenant of grace. It’s unclear if Williams had a complete set of sliders, since he omits any mention of stories from the Old Testament. Whether they were present or absent in Williams’ lantern show, I argue that the scenes from the Old Testament frame the set’s overall emphasis on covenant theology.

Scenes from the Old Testament

Carpenter and Westley revised the Old Testament portion of the set more heavily than the scenes from the life of Christ. Twelve engravings were used continuously over the course of the set’s production. The table below visualizes changes made to the engraved images used in the Old Testament sequence of scenes by comparing the set in the Willem A. Wagenaars' Christiaan Huygens Theater Collection to a set in my own care. These alterations include five re-engraved scenes; those titles appear in green. The sliders also indicate that some scenes were replaced entirely, for five images do not appear in all sets. These titles appear in blue. Despite these variations, all versions maintain the sequence’s overall emphasis on covenant theology, though they vary in their sentimentality.

Title of the Scene	Ton Set	Willem A. Wagenaars' Christiaan Huygens Theater Collection Set
Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise
Hagar and Ishmael
Abram offering Isaac
Rebecca at the Well
Jacob stealing Esau's birthright
Joseph sold into Egypt
Joseph meeting his father
The finding of Moses
The Ark of the Covenant
The Dress of the High Priest
The Altar of Incense
The Altar of Burnt Offering
An Aaronite or Scribe
The Golden Candlestick
Return of the Spies
The Brazen Serpent
Balaam and his Ass
Samson and the Lion
Esther before Ahasuerus
Hannah, Samuel, and Eli
The Infant Samuel
Elijah fed by Ravens
David and Goliath
David dancing before the Ark
Nathan reproving David

Though my focus in this case study will be the slides mentioned explicitly in Williams’ letter, there are a few features of the Old Testament portion of the set that merit a brief discussion. In preparation for the life of Christ slides, the scenes from the Old Testament bring two strands of doctrine to the fore: the concept of predestination and means of atonement. The Old Testament sliders depict Israel as God’s elect, particularly in its representation of Abraham’s family. The image of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away (and its revised version) emphasizes Isaac as the favored son. Other scenes, such as Esther before Ahasuerus, the Infant Samuel, and Elijah being fed by ravens, portray God providing for his elect. The lecture also includes moments of sacrifice and redemption that foreshadow Christ’s crucifixion, including the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses being rescued from the Nile, and the Brazen Serpent. This interest in the redemption is further advanced by sliders three and four that depict Tabernacle worship. Proportionally, the lecture devotes the most time to this sustained sequence that representations of priests, scribes, and holy objects, thereby portraying the sacrificial system as the principal means of atonement before Christ. I would argue that there’s also a marketing ploy at work here, for the content of these images parallels other lectures produced by Carpenter and Westley on ancient costumes.[2] These images are among the most visually stunning in the set, for the opaque black paint surrounding the priests and scribes makes their garb seem all the more colorful. This visual and narrative strategy caters to a Victorian taste for the exotic through a virtual encounter with the priest. The scripture references that accompany each of these images suggests that the narrator would have focused on the priest’s garments and details of the furniture. This narration would have objectified the priests and scribes, limiting any kind of imagined interaction between the audience and the the figures on screen.

The re-engraved images have the opposite effect. The alternate images not only improve the quality of the sliders but also increase the pathos of each scene. In the first iteration of the scene depicting Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden of Eden, they are being chased by a rather gleeful angel with their heads in their hands. The revised version of the scene focuses on Adam and Eve cowering in the darkness. Without the flaming sword, this scene registers less as a moment of judgement and more as a harbinger of future redemption. The slide painter has added tendrils of lightning; Adam and Eve’s gaze toward the light suggests that their relationship with God has not been broken completely. Similarly, the first version of the Hagar and Ishmael includes Abraham, whose smile undermines the gravitas of this moment. The second version eliminates all traces of domesticity, for the portico in the first is replaced by a desolate desert background. Hagar and Ishmael are at the point of fainting from hunger, thirst, and fatigue. I would suggest that this image functions as a melodramatic tableaux in the ways that it captures characters at the moment of greatest peril, mere seconds before their rescue. (Spoiler alert: God sent an angel to point Hagar and Ishmael to a nearby well.) Giving such pathetic appeal to Hagar and Ishmael heightens the drama of Abraham sacrificing Isaac in the subsequent scene. The Old Testament portion of the lecture set focuses on sacrifice, atonement, and redemption—themes that ultimately play out in the scenes depicting the life of Christ.[3]

Scenes from the Life of Christ

Whereas Carpenter and Westley changed their selection of scenes from the Old Testament over the course of the lantern lecture’s production, the New Testament sliders maintained a fixed set of scenes from the life of Christ, meaning that variations in this portion of the set are limited to re-engravings and painting styles. Unlike the Old Testament sliders, the re-engravings do not dramatically alter the tone of the scenes that they depict. Instead, their primary purpose is to mitigate any inadvertent comedic effect elicited by a poorly drawn slide. Comparing sliders in the Willem A. Wagenaars’ Christiaan Huygens Theater Collection to partial and complete sets in the my care enables me to survey differences in painting techniques. Painting slides was, quite literally, a cottage industry. Trevor Beattie has uncovered the names of several painters through census records. Records of these artists are difficult to find, but based on the ones that can be identified, Beattie suggests that these artists tended to work from home and typically practiced another artistic skill in addition to slide painting.[4] It is likely that Carpenter and Westley commissioned one of these slide painters to create martyrological slides based on plates in Foxe’s Actes and Monuments for Walker to present to Williams. The copperplate-printed outlines in the scriptural set lent a degree of consistency to the image, but each slide had to be painted by hand, causing caused significant variations in color choice, level of detail, and the amount of scenery included.

Three versions of slider number 10 encapsulate the kinds of visual variations in commercially produced sets of scriptural slides more generally. Carpenter and Westley’s catalog indicates that this slider contained three images: Christ stilling the tempest, the Good Samaritan, and the Lord of the Vineyard and the Labourer. It begins a sequence of parables that continues onto the next slide and ends with the return of the Prodigal son. The parables are bookended by two miracles performed on the sea.
The first image in this slider, Christ stilling the tempest, was re-engraved at some point in the lecture set’s production. The early version is arguably more dramatic. The precarious arc of the waves leap over the sides of the boat. Christ’s robe billows theatrically behind him, whipping in the wind of the tempest. In his rush to convey the wind and the waves, the engraver presents the boat and the figures in it at an odd angle. The perspective is neither parallel or from above but appears to be both simultaneously, causing Christ to appear as if he is hovering on the surface of the boat.[5] The second version of this image, seen in the slider below, is much more restrained. The straight line of the boat’s side rectifies the issue of perspective, and the perpendicular angle that it forms with the ship’s mast is paralleled by Christ’s posture, outstretched arm, and not-so-billowy robe. The rigid composition of this engraving introduces a sense of order.
The lantern lecture then transitions from describing Christ’s authority over nature to his moral teachings with three parables, beginning with the Good Samaritan. This particular engraving was used throughout the lecture set’s production. The bucolic setting of this scene gave artists the opportunity to exercise their landscape painting skills; the artists who painted the slide above and the slide below relished adding details to the leaves and texture to the grass. The subtle differences between the foreground and background foliage create a sense of depth not present in other versions of this image.

The third image on this slider, the parable of the Lord of the Vineyard and the Labourer, was not only re-engraved but also offered individual artists the opportunity to add their own scenery. Whereas other artists filled in the background with black paint or with a non-descript curtain, the painter of the set in the Willem A. Wagenaars’ Christiaan Huygens Theater Collection tended to add latticework screens, for the rattan walls make a reappearance in that set’s image of the disciples at Emmaus.

Christ’s crucifixion

When compared to other images in this lantern lecture, the depiction of Christ on the cross is remarkably consistent across all sets. The engraving was used continuously throughout the set’s production, making the basic outline of the image the same for all sets. Painters could have included scenery or added their own, but they all chose to surround Christ with opaque black paint. This would have created a sharp contrast between the illuminated figure on screen and the pitch-black space inhabited by the audience, an effect which I analyze in further detail here. Where these sets differ is the amount of blood; artists adjusted how graphic this scene appear through the elision or inclusion of blood. The slider below presents a relatively tame version of this image. Although it’s badly damaged from heat, the paint that remains shows that the painters did not add blood. The artist also simplified his loincloth, masking the top of Christ’s thighs and adding a degree of modesty.
The painter of the slide in the Willem A. Wagenaars' Christiaan Huygens Theater Collection chose a lighter color for the cross in order to create a stronger contrast between the pale wood and Christ’s blood, which not only trickles down his side but also stains the cross.
The most graphic example is only visible when illuminated. The painter of this slide added drops of blood to the wound in Christ’s side. The splash of blood on Christ’s neck serves as evidence of the crown of thorns, which is not clearly visible in this engraving.
Williams did not shy away from violence, especially since he requested images of Protestant martyrs dying gruesome deaths. To echo the graphic content of other portions of Williams' lecture, I have chosen to use this third image in my recreation of the visual component of his lecture, as seen here.

[1] “Carpenter and Westley—Their History and Artistry.” The New Magic Lantern Journal, vol. 11, no. 4, March 2013. pp. 6-10.

[2] Granville Ganter discusses the ancient costume sliders in “Mistress of Her Art: Anne Laura Clarke, Traveling Lecturer of the 1820s”. The New England Quarterly, vol. 87, no. 4, December 2014. DOI: 10.1162/TNEQ_a_00418

[3] For an extended discussion on these themes in the New Testament portion of the lecture, see “‘A Light to Lighten the Gentiles.’”

[4] Beattie, pp. 9-10.

[5] Early versions of the Trial of Peter exhibit the same artistic exuberance and mistakes. The robes of Peter and Jesus come alive in the wind, but Christ’s limbs appear to be contorted at impossible angles. It too was re-engraved.

"O! that the Holy Spirit would enlighten them!" As the most detailed account of his lantern shows, Livingstone’s presentation of the sacrifice of Isaac in Kabompo serves as a touchstone for his narrative strategies. While projecting this scene, Livingstone
[...] explained that this man was the first of a race to whom God had given the Bible we now held, and that among his children our Savior appeared [...] [1]
This explanation suggests that the image was part of a longer sequence that represented Christian theology as an extension of sacrificial worship as described in the Old Testament. Like John Williams’ shows, the projected image of Abraham created a visual effect that Ludwig Vogl-Beinek has characterized as “presence.” Though the image is ultimately immaterial, it appears tangible due to the blurred boundaries between the world represented on screen and the space inhabited by the audience. Rather than rely on slides that surrounded figures with opaque black paint, Livingstone created this effect through dialogue with the audience. By describing the theological underpinnings of Livingstone’s narrative strategies, I argue that Livingstone's use of a lantern was ultimately shaped by a Calvinist view of the means of grace.

Livingstone’s choice to exhibit the sacrifice of Isaac as the first image in the lantern show is unusual when compared to other scriptural lantern lectures. As I have described elsewhere, this scene is the third in Carpenter and Westley’s copperplate sliders, preceded by Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden and Abraham banishing Hagar and Ishmael. The sequence of images as it appears in Carpenter and Westley’s set introduces two key doctrines: atonement and predestination. Opening with the image of Adam and Eve conveys the need for salvation by describing humankind’s initial separation from God. By eliminating this scene, Livingstone risked losing a key piece of the framework through which to describe Christ’s crucifixion. Livingstone accounts for this loss by opening with a scene of sacrifice. This image created an opportunity to map other references to atonement onto this image, allowing Livingstone to mediate multiple passages of scripture through his spoken narrative. This technique would have been especially effective if he had a very detailed slide. For example, using Carpenter and Westley’s version of the sacrifice of Isaac, a narrator could direct the audience’s attention to different parts of the image as they progressed through the story.
The narration would begin by focusing on Abraham as called by God to leave Harran for the Promised Land. The narrator would then describe Isaac as his promised son, shifting towards the center of the slide. The pile of wood and the burning brazier provided the narrator an opportunity to explain the importance of sacrifice as a means to atone for sin. As the narrator remediated the conversation between Abraham and his son about the absence of a ram, the focal point would follow Isaac’s gaze upward to his father’s face then outside the frame as Abraham listed to the voice of an Angel. The narration would close by directing the audience’s attention to the ram caught in the thicket at the lower right hand corner of the image. Livingstone’s accounts suggest that he often used this kind of temporal layering when presenting visual material. Missionary Travels indicates that he collapsed the distance between Abraham and Christ in his narration of this image.

Such a tactic serves a practical purpose as well as an instructional one. A set of wooden slides that had only one image per frame would have been significantly heavier and bulkier than the same number of scenes stored in sliders. Given their size and weight, Livingstone was probably traveling with a limited selection of slides.[2] Layering multiple events onto one image would mask the absence of visual material depicting these other scenes. One of the drawbacks to this multilayered style of narration is that it posed risks to the equipment. Explaining the image in this manner would have taken longer than a more focused narration. In Livingstone’s shows, the time spent narrating each slide would have been further expanded by interjections from the audience. As the show progressed, the lantern would become hotter and hotter. The longer that Livingstone left the slide in the lantern, the more likely it was going to suffer heat damage. The flaking paint at the top of Livingstone’s lantern is the result of this kind of damage. I suspect that if Livingstone’s slides do surface, the paint will be cracked and bubbled due to overexposure to heat.

In Livingstone’s lantern shows, layering events onto a single, static image was done in conversation with the audience. At Kabompo, this dialogue elided geographic and temporal distance by gesturing to objects at the periphery of the performance space. Livingstone primed his audience to think in comparative terms by creating ties between the projected image of Abraham and “the Bible we now held.” By evoking the materiality of the physical book that he traveled with, Livingstone elides the boundary between the world represented on screen and the space inhabited by the audience. The audience responded to this tactic by making comparisons of their own. In Kabompo, the Lunda men introduced African theology and religious objects into this dialogue. They remarked that
the picture was much more like a god than the things of wood or clay they worshiped.[3]

Livingstone’s diary indicates that this comparison extended to all of the pictures projected by the lantern:
Some said these were certainly liker gods than their pieces of wood smeared with medicine.[4]

Livingstone’s remediation of these conversations emphasizes the physicality of African religious practices. He foregrounds the materiality of god figures by describing their surfaces anointed with poultices as a form of prayer. Though immaterial, the projected image of Abraham takes on the physical presence through this comparison with African objects. Simultaneously, the apparati of the lantern show diminish the presence of these god figures. In a completely dark environment, the African religious figures would have been visually erased, leaving only the brightly lit image of the figures on screen. As I have described elsewhere, these viewing conditions produce an immersive viewing experience that removes the boundary between the space inhabited by the audience and the world represented on screen. Livingstone’s account suggests that movement reinforced Abraham’s presence by introducing movement into the image. Unlike Williams, Livingstone was probably not using slides that surrounded figures with opaque black paint. Images with scenery created a more distinguishable boundary between real and representational space through the circular mask of the slide. Despite this visual cue, Abraham threatens to break through this boundary to attack the audience with his uplifted knife when he slides sideways. In Livingstone’s account, the perceived presence of Abraham left tangible markers on the surrounding landscape. The audience
rushed helter-skelter, tumbling pell-mell over each other, and over the little idol-huts and tobacco-bushes[5]
Although an unintentional visual effect, the perceived materialization of Abraham ultimately supported Livingstone’s pedagogical goals. The African gods indicate that the lantern show was given on holy ground, for the Lunda did not set up these idols in urban spaces but in the woods nearby. Moving the show from the village to the sacred space in the woods not only mitigated the effects of ambient light, but it also emphasized the spiritual nature of the show’s content. Abraham’s sideways movement overturns the structures that supported African religious practices, implying that these gods were ineffective in light of Christian doctrine.[6] To an English readership, the toppled gods portended the eventual triumph of Christianity over African superstitions.

Livingstone presentation of Abraham as a patriarch aligns with the emphases on the doctrines of election and predestination in other lantern lectures. Within the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Evangelical movement, there were competing interpretations of the Holy Spirit’s role in conversion. In its purest form, Calvinism teaches that God predestined a limited number of people to receive his grace before the creation of the world. Christ did not die to atone for the sins of all people but only for the sins of those chosen by God. The elect would be saved from the consequences of original sin, and this election was unconditional, irresistible, and perpetual. An Arminian view of salvation challenged the doctrine of predestination on the basis that it did not sufficiently account for human free will. This theological tradition teaches that God grants salvation to those who choose to believe in Jesus, that Christ died for all, and that salvation may in some cases not be perpetual but dependent on the believer’s behavior. Carpenter and Westely’s scriptural set resonates with a more Calvinist view, particularly in the Old Testament portion of the lantern lecture. The contrast between Ishmael and Isaac in the opening images of the lecture foregrounds the descendants of Isaac as God’s chosen people. The set also includes scenes of God protecting and providing for his elect, including Esther before Ahasuerus, the Infant Samuel, and Elijah being fed by ravens.

While it would be presumptuous to make assumptions about Livingstone’s beliefs, his public professions of faith suggest that he leaned toward the more reformed side of the Calvinist-Arminian spectrum. He briefly describes his conversion experience in Missionary Travels. Here, Livingstone deploys visual metaphors and the passive voice to emphasize God’s role in extending saving grace.
The change was like what may be supposed would take place were it possible to cure a case of ‘color blindness.’ The perfect freeness with which the pardon of all our guilt is offered in God’s book drew forth feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with his blood, and a sense of deep obligation to him for his mercy has influenced, in some small measure my conduct ever since.[7]
The miraculous nature of a physical cure for colorblindness parallels the Calvinistic account of grace in that the sinner cannot heal himself spiritually. Livingstone’s role in his conversion experience is obscured by the complex structure of the second sentence. The flow of his feelings stems from God’s book, making scripture the catalyst for his belief. However, in his private correspondence, Livingstone shied away from eliminating free will entirely. In a letter to his close friend Edmund Gabriel, he wrote that “No man is forced to be a sinner unless he chooses,” meaning that belief is a choice. Instead of attributing condemnation to God’s will, Livingstone shifts the blame onto cultural forces that make it impossible “to escape into the true faith.”[8]

The emphasis on God’s intervention as an integral part of conversion characterized Livingstone’s stance toward the magic lantern. In his journal, he expresses frustration that despite the interaction and dialogue generated by the lantern, these multimodal presentations of Christian doctrine were not achieving their instructional purpose. After a series of shows in Linyanti, Livingstone laments that
Though they listen with apparent delight to what is said, questioning on the following night reveals almost entire ignorance of the previous lesson. O! that the Holy Spirit would enlighten them. To His soul-renewing influence my longing heart is directed. It is His word, and cannot die.[9]
This aside contrasts physical illumination with spiritual enlightenment. Though Livingstone used projection as an instructional aid, he attributes lasting spiritual change to the work of the Holy Spirit. Without divine intervention, his audience’s memory of the show’s content seems as transitory as the images themselves. Livingstone’s final turn to scripture, “His word,” represents the slippage between media as a means of grace. The narrative slides seamlessly, almost imperceptibly, between the lantern show, the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit, and the role of scripture. Since the Bible had not yet been translated into the languages of the Kololo and the Lunda, the magic lantern show offered an alternative means to encounter scripture. Livingstone’s lantern rendered Biblical material visually legible to an audience that perceived the text as unintelligible, for they had looked on with curiosity as Livingstone wrote in his notebook.[10] Livingstone’s evocation of “His word” in the diary transforms the lantern show into a surrogate for the Bible in its printed form, positioning the audio-visual presentation of scripture as a vehicle for the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of potential converts.

In his remediations of scripture, Livingstone expressed Calvinist views of the Holy Spirit’s role in salvation. In his lantern shows, his interpretation of Old Testament material supported the Calvinist narrative that God ultimately chooses who will profess faith. Diminishing the boundary between the world represented on screen and the space inhabited by the audience through dialogue was designed to make these concepts an embodied reality. Livingstone’s diary serves as a record of these audio-visual presentations as events, but they also create opportunities for further reflection. Livingstone’s portrayal of the lantern as an ineffective evangelistic tool led to a second remediation of Reformed doctrine. By calling for the Holy Spirit to intervene, Livingstone expresses a desire for spiritual renewal both for his African audience and for himself.
[1] Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years’ Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; Thence across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean, John Murray, 1857, accessible via Google Books, pp. 298-299.
[2] Rev. Smithurst, a contemporary of Livingstone’s who was sent by the Church Missionary Society to Red River, Canada, gave lantern shows with only five slides. He characterized two of these as “wretched daubs.” See page 3 of his letter to Dandeson Coates (the CMS Foreign Secretary), 18 November 1846, Church Missionary Society Archives, University of Birmingham Special Collections, CMS C1/063/34.
[3] Missionary Travels, pp. 298-299.
[4] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, Isaac Schapera, ed., Chatto & Windus, 1963. p. 59.
[5] Missionary Travels, pp. 298-299.
[6] Livingstone describes the Lunda idols in greater detail in Missionary Travels, pp. 286-287. The gods were placed not in the confines of the village but in the woods nearby. This positioning served a protective function, for “if an enemy were approaching they [the gods] would have full information.”
[7] Missionary Travels, p. 4.
[8] “Letter to Edmund Gabriel, 5, 18, 20, 23 January 1855,” Brenthurst Library, Book no. 6754, accessible via Livingstone Online, Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, dirs, 2019, Web, p. 23.
[9] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, p. 315.
[10] Livingstone’s African Journal 1853-1856, p. 18.