Picturing the Museum: Education and Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

Natural history museums -- Educational aspects

Museum exhibits

Museum techniques

Visual education

Visual display of natural science has been a cornerstone of the mission of the American Museum of Natural History since its inception. Solidly based on the Museum's scientific exploration and research, AMNH educators, librarians and exhibition specialists have labored to make the knowledge and wonder of the natural world available to the public. Their efforts and those of their successors were, in turn, documented by museum staff and other photographers.

The Museum’s Research Library now manages its historical photographs and is following in the Museum's tradition of making its history and visual resources widely available for the people, for science, and for education.

American Museum of Natural History

Photographs

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Lantern Slide Collection

Brooklyn Museum

Visual education

Egyptology

Museums -- Educational aspects

In 1849, the Philadelphia daguerreotypists William and Frederick Langenheim introduced the lantern slide: a transparent image on glass that could be projected, in magnified form, onto a surface using a "magic lantern," or sciopticon. This new technology expanded the uses of photography, allowing photographic images to be viewed by a large audience. With lantern slides, Museum curators and educators could illustrate their lectures, letting audience members see detailed studies of objects and sites from around the world.

The Brooklyn Museum began collecting lantern slides in the late nineteenth century. The museum is sharing some of these images as part of The Commons on Flickr. As of Dec. 22, 2008 the available images were of ancient Egyptian art and architecture.

Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum

Lantern slides

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