Geographical Projections: Lantern slides, science and popular geography, 1860-1960

近年来，学者们展示了视觉技术——包括博物馆、讲座、展览和摄影——在科学知识形成中的重要性。例如，研究考虑了：如何利用地图、图纸和照片中的视觉证据在科学领域建立权威；摄影在地理和人类学知识的制作和传播中的作用；以及19世纪科学中关于照片证据的争论。然而，很少有学者注意到，从19世纪60年代开始，玻璃幻灯片在各种科学知识的创造、流通和收集中的广泛使用。从19世纪60年代开始，灯笼幻灯片成为非常受欢迎的娱乐和教育形式，迎合了在帝国、大众传播、科学和现代时代对视觉图像（尤其是照片）日益增长的渴望。许多来自业余制作者和专业工作室的幻灯片，在某种程度上迎合了西方观众对异国情调和场景照片的品味。虽然一些学者已经开始研究幻灯片的社会、美学和技术方面，但很少有人考虑到它们作为通俗地理形式的意义，很少有人关注幻灯片在地理科学和教育网络中是如何制作、传播和展示的。埃克塞特大学和英国皇家地理学会（与IBG合作）（RGS-IBG）之间的这个合作博士项目，重点是RGS-IBG收集的灯笼幻灯片。虽然大部分的收藏已经被清理、分类和保存，但对这个重要的档案（大约20000张）还没有进行详细的、批判性的研究。这个合作研究项目，聚焦于独特的RGS-IBG收藏，将研究从19世纪60年代开始到下个世纪面对胶片和35毫米幻灯片的竞争而衰落的灯笼幻灯片在地理机构、思想和实践中的地位。该项目的总体目标是在更广泛的文化、历史和环境中定位地理上的幻灯片，以便更好地理解它们的吸引力和伴随的意义。该项目特别旨在研究如何利用幻灯片制作地理知识，并向不同的受众传播地理知识；在更广泛的科学、商业和娱乐场所设置灯台；为了研究幻灯实际上是如何被用作物体的，以及它们是如何被视为投影图像的。通过分析幻灯片以及相关的记录、通信和当代出版物（重点关注RGS-IBG档案，但也使用平行的英国收藏），该项目将探索如何使用幻灯片来传达特定形式的地理信息，它们如何在地理圈内传播，以及不同受众对它们的反应。它还将考虑技术和地点如何影响观众的态度、看法和期望。在这个过程中，这项博士研究将有助于各个学术领域的辩论，包括技术史；历史文化地理；科学史与社会学；视觉文化与文化史。这个研究项目对其他受众也有很大的影响潜力。它将与RGS-IBG工作人员合作，更好地了解和理解RGS-IBG灯笼幻灯片收集，并可能制定进一步的研究和影响项目。通过规划的传播策略，包括展示、演示和出版（包括向《地理杂志》投稿和在线材料），该项目将向包括RGS-IB在内的更广泛的受众开放这一独特的视觉档案

In recent years scholars have shown the significance of visual technologies - including museums, lectures, exhibitions and photography - in the making of scientific knowledge. Studies have considered, for example: how visual evidence in maps, drawings and photographs was used to create authority within science; the roles of photography in the making and dissemination of geographical and anthropological knowledge; and debates over photographic evidence within nineteenth-century science. Little scholarly attention, however, has been paid to the widespread use of glass lantern slides from the 1860s in the creation, circulation and collection of forms of scientific knowledge. From the 1860s onwards lantern slide shows became hugely popular forms of entertainment and education, catering to an increasing hunger for visual imagery (particularly photographs) in the age of empire, mass communication, science and modernity. Many lantern slides, from amateur makers and professional studios, catered in some way to the taste amongst Western audiences for photographs of exotic sites and scenes. While some scholars have begun to examine the social, aesthetic and technological aspects of lantern slides, few have considered their significance as forms of popular geography, and scant attention has been paid to how slides were actually made, circulated and displayed within networks of geographical science and education. This collaborative doctoral project, between the University of Exeter and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (RGS-IBG), focuses on the RGS-IBG collection of lantern slides. While much of the collection has been cleaned, catalogued and conserved, no detailed, critical research has yet been done on this significant archive of (approximately 20,000) slides. This collaborative research project, focusing on the unique RGS-IBG collections, will examine the place of lantern slides within geographical institutions, ideas and practices, from their beginnings in the 1860s to their decline in the next century in the face of competition from film and 35mm slides. The overall aim of the project is to locate geographical lantern slides within their wider cultural, historical and setting in order to better understand their attractions and attendant meanings. In particular, the project aims to examine how lantern slides were used to make and communicate geographical knowledge to different audiences; to locate lantern slides within wider settings of science, commerce and entertainment; to examine how lantern slides were actually used as objects as well as how they were viewed as projected images. Analysing lantern slides alongside associated records, correspondence and contemporary publications (focusing on RGS-IBG archives but also using parallel UK collections), the project will explore how lantern slides were employed to convey particular forms of geographical information, how they circulated within geographical circles and how different audiences responded to them. It will also consider how technology and location affected audiences' attitudes, perceptions and expectations. In the process this doctoral research will contribute to debates across various academic fields including the history of technology; historical and cultural geography; history and sociology of science; visual culture and cultural history. This research project also has strong potential to impact on other audiences. It will work with RGS-IBG staff to generate better knowledge and understanding of the RGS-IBG lantern slide collection, and potentially to develop further projects of research and impact. Through planned dissemination strategies, including displays, presentations and publication (including contribution to the Geographical Magazine, and on-line material) the project will open up this unique visual archive to wider audiences, including RGS-IB