Magic Lantern Slides of Egypt: Bringing a Historic Technology Back into the Light Clara McCafferty Wright Leah Packard Grams Ella McCafferty Wright A.B. Candidate Bryn Mawr College, 2019 A.B. Candidate Bryn Mawr College, 2020 A.B. Candidate Bryn Mawr College, 2019 cmwright@brynmawr.edu lgrams@brynmawr.edu emwright@brynmawr.edu Project Overview: The oldest magic lantern slides in Bryn Mawr’s collection were introduced in 1908 by Dr. Caroline Ransom, the first American woman to get a Ph.D. in Egyptology. Lantern slides were a key part of Bryn Mawr’s Egyptology curriculum until they were replaced by 35 mm carousel slides in the second half of the 20th century. Bryn Mawr has approximately 2,000 glass lantern slides of Egypt. This slide collection includes images of sites prior to their excavation and reconstruction, as well as sites in Egypt and Nubia affected by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. A critical effort is underway to bring these images back from the brink of obscurity by cataloging and digitizing the earliest slides in Bryn Mawr College’s collection. These images and metadata will be published in an online database to aid future research. Methodology: The first stage of this project is to develop a working index of the Egyptology slide collection, select prioritized slides, and digitize them with a high resolution photo scanner. Criteria for Prioritized Slide Selection: • Oldest slides (1908-1910) compiled and donated by Dr. Caroline Ransom • Unique images which are likely to be the only surviving copy • Slides which show a site before excavation, reconstruction, or relocation Going forward, we hope to expand our project to digitizing and publishing all other slides containing images in the public domain. Relevance to Archaeological Research: In the century that has elapsed since these photographs were taken, the environment and population of Egypt has changed drastically. Many of the slides in Bryn Mawr’s collection show sites before they were reconstructed or excavated, a destructive process which is irreversible and, in the past, not always well documented. In the course of these early excavations, many of the Greco-Roman, Late Antique, Byzantine, and Ottoman era mudbrick structures were destroyed in order to uncover the Pharaonic phases of construction. A number of Bryn Mawr’s slides show rare glimpses of these remains, which are largely lost to the archaeological record. Photographic Features: These slides are artifacts in their own right and contain insights into their histories and production. Features present in our slides include: A B C A. Salt Crystals: Many slides have frost-like crystals on the image. This is caused by a chemical used in the developing process, hypo-sodium thiosulfate, and is a result of the film not being rinsed well before being placed in glass. B. Sand Scratches: Some slides show evidence of sand scratches in the negatives, creating white under- developed marks on the image. Sometimes, the developer has attempted to paint over these scratches with watercolor or India ink. C. Lenticular Fall-Off: An effect when a lens is poorly ground and edges of the photograph become blurred. This often indicates that the image was taken by a tourist or a traveling academic rather than a professional photographer. Conclusion: The data preserved on these slides has inherent value for current scholars. These images provide glimpses of Egypt over 100 years ago, and the increasing rarity of slide collections means that these images of Egypt are in danger of becoming lost. Through our digitization of these lantern slides, scholars will soon be able to access high resolution scans of the oldest lantern slides of Egypt in Bryn Mawr’s collection. These magic lantern slides have an immense potential to increase our understanding of the archaeological record, the role of photography in archaeology, and the history of Egyptology as a discipline. Above: Slide of the Nubian/Egyptian Temple of Kalabsha before it was moved to save it from the construction of the Aswan Dam. All of the surrounding remains are now destroyed. This image has been digitally manipulated so that Dr. Caroline Ransom’s original notes can still be read. Bibliography: James Henry Breasted and Harold H. Nelson, eds., “Medinet Habu Reports,” Oriental Institute Communications, no. 10 (1931). Sheppard, Kathleen L., ed. My Dear Miss Ransom: Letters between Caroline Ransom Williams and James Henry Breasted, 1898-1935. 1 edition. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology, 2018. Vermeir , Koen. “The Magic of the Magic Lantern (1660-1700): On Analogical Demonstration and the Visualization of the Invisible.” The British Journal for the History of Science 38, no. 2 (2005): 127–59. Above: Slide of Medinet Habu from 1918. This image includes the mudbrick structures that surrounded the temple before they were removed during the excavations. Very little was done to document these mudbrick structures that dated from the Grecco- Roman through the Ottoman Period. Above: Image showing selective digital manipulation on the original labels so that they can be easily read by scholars. This process does not alter the scans of the transparencies. Right: Ella Wright ’19 assess digital images while Leah Grams ‘20 cleans lantern slides in preparation for scanning.