Lantern slides – images or photographs laid on glass and projected by “magic” lantern viewing devices – have their origins in the 17th century and for hundreds of years brought history, geography, and culture to life before radio, television, movies, overhead projectors, and computers. (Information taken from MagicLanternSociety.org.)
This collection of 20 glass lantern slides depicts majestic vistas and woody natural scenes in Yellowstone National Park at what we believe to be the turn of the twentieth century. The park was officially created on October 1, 1890; these slides likely depict the landscape of the park near its “birth” 120 years ago.
Despite being protected for over a century, Yellowstone has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years; those residents, the Ahwahnechee people, were murdered and driven away by European-Americans in the 1850s. Geologically, Yellowstone has been around long before any evidence of even Ahwahnechee residence in the Valley. Vertical movement along the Sierra fault, beginning nearly 10 million years ago, lifted and carved out many of the stunning rock formations seen in these slides. These seemingly indestructible mountains were born of millions of years of natural and man made change, and these slides capture only one moment in a long, complex, and tumultuous timeline.
Yellowstone National Park maintains a collection of glass lantern slides depicting its history and visitors highlighted HERE.
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