Illuminating
Lantern Slides

Drawing from the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies' collection of lantern slides, we will take a look at photographers who created lantern slides to capture the mountain ranges of Western Canada. 

Lantern Slides

Lantern slides were the first projected images, dating back to the mid 17th century. Originally made with drawn images on glass, lantern slides became a hugely popular base for photography well into the 1900s before slowly being replaced by celluloid film slides.

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Displayed through a magic lantern projector, lantern slides could be coloured in with paint or ink and were made by everyone from amateur photographers, to school teachers, to government agencies. 

After the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) established hotels along its route through the Rocky Mountains, the area saw more and more people visiting and exploring - most of them taking pictures. Glass negatives were a common medium for many of these photographers as their standard sizes were compatible with most cameras by 1890 and could be easily carried out into the mountains. Upon development into positives they could simply be made into lantern slides if desired.

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The additional option to add colour to the slides also meant they could be used by companies like the CPR as marketing tools abroad, just as frequently as visitors could use them to dazzle their families.  

Not all lantern slides survived intact throughout the years. Sometimes it is possible for heat, moisture, or oxygen to access the image within its glass casing. Depending on the photographic and/or development process, these elements can affect an image differently.

Here are a few examples:

Sometimes a label was added to the paper window with details like a title, location, and/or date. Additionally, a small sticker was usually stuck to one corner - these stickers were used to orient the slide and would contain a number if part of a specific sequence. 

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Photographic lantern slides could also be made by using light sensitive emulsion on glass and exposing directly onto the "back" pane of glass. After the image was developed, it would be treated with a waterproof sealant and then construction of the slide continued like above (from step 2).

Throughout the latter half of the 1800s new variations of colour photography continued to be released, almost all of which entailed introducing the colour during the development process. It could be argued that these processes did not achieve commercial success due to the fact that the development processes were complicated, time-consuming, and required multiple negatives of the same image. Additionally, unlike black and white photographs, which were printed on something stable like paper, glass, or precious metals, early colour photographs had to be displayed through a projector in order to be seen in colour.

There is another aspect to take into consideration when looking at why colour photography did not gain widespread commercial popularity until the latter half of the 20th century: people became used to black and white photography.

The introduction of celluloid film as an alternative to glass-based photography in the early 20th century opened up new avenues in the field of photography that included both moving pictures and natural colour photos.

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By 1939 Kodak’s Kodachrome film dominated the commercial market. While glass-based slides were still being produced, and many “professional” photographers still worked in black and white, the general public increased their use of colour film for their pictures. Far from being the only manufacturer on the market by the mid 20th century, Kodak went on to become a name synonymous with photography. The age of digital photography has hampered Kodak’s prominence in the industry, but even today it is an instantly recognizable name.

Our relationship with colour photography has changed significantly in the 21st century thanks in large part to the widespread influence of the digital camera. Now not only are we able to capture the world around us in real colour, we can review the picture and make edits almost as soon as it is taken. Smartphones equipped with cameras have made it easier than ever for people to take pictures and share them with the world.

photographer biographies

In 1908, at the age of 4 years old, Leacock and his family moved from England to Banff at the prompting of Sid Unwin, who had served alongside his father Harry Leacock in the Boer War. It was while Harry was serving in WWI that Leacock found his love of the piano.

During the summer months she arranged trips from the eastern United States by train north into Canada and eventually west into the Rockies, from where they would be met by guides and pack trains and the real trip into the mountains began. By her own admission Hinman wanted to share the serenity and adventure she found in the Canadian Rockies with young ladies – she herself never married nor had children, so dedicated was she to sharing the hidden corners of the world with others.

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In the winters she was equally busy planning trips to the far-flung corners of the globe: Egypt, the Sudan, the Sahara, Sicily, India, China, Japan, and Russia, just to name a few. No matter where she wandered, Hinman saw to every detail before stepping out her front door. She meticulously planned every step of the travel route, secured accommodation at luxurious hotels (or, if there were no hotel options, then the next best thing), and planned smaller excursions along the way. Her ultimate goal for every destination was to provide an experience for her guests they would otherwise not be offered by the standard tour operators of the day.

Not all of Hinman’s trips to the Canadian Rockies were strictly on horseback; she also offered summer trips along the newly completed motor car road between Banff and Jasper. Guests stayed in the Canadian Pacific hotels and travelled in glass-domed buses and trains. So long as Hinman's trips enabled her to visit the high clean airs of the mountains and escape the hustle and bustle of city life, she was happy to inject elements of modern travel into her ramblings through the Rockies.

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Caroline Hinman fell in love with the wild places of the Canadian Rockies when she first laid eyes on them. While she remained a life long resident of New Jersey, she was a stalwart advocate for the benefits of clean mountain air and the peace to be found off the beaten track.

The most difficult route the railroad took was through the Rocky Mountains, whose steep grades and narrow valleys were enough to make surveyor John Palliser believe the track could not be completed unless part of it was run through the United States. Some creative tunnelling and plenty of sidings through the mountains however kept the railroad entirely in Canada.

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One of these sidings developed beyond just a refueling station when natural hot sulphur springs were found on the other side of the river. Van Horne, recognizing a potential market in the springs, called for the construction of a luxury hotel nearby and began an aggressive advertisement campaign to draw wealthy tourists into the mountains on the train. The federal government, also recognizing the potential of the hot water springs, borrowed a new idea from the United States and purchased the surrounding land, creating Canada’s first National Park. Banff National Park (originally called Rocky Mountain National Park), and the town of Banff, quickly flourished; overseen by the government and kept busy by the railroad, people came from all over the world to visit it.

Van Horne commissioned artists to ride the train and paint the mountain scenery, and CPR surveyors remained in the area taking photographs. Many of these photographs were lantern slides, often coloured, which featured the company’s hotels throughout the west, scenic mountain vistas, and other points of interest along the line. Shown around the world as magic lantern shows or sold individually as souvenirs, these slides proved to be an amazing tool to promote not only the railroad, but also all the potential of the newly opened Canadian west to settlers. Capitalizing on the beauty of the Rocky Mountains, the CPR (and government agencies such as the Department of the Interior) successfully employed lantern slides to draw people to Banff, creating a destination known around the world.

Schäffer Warren's lantern slides have become iconic and feature prominently in her book “Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies” (which has been republished by the Whyte Museum as "A Hunter of Peace") and also form the basis for Michale Lang’s book “An Adventurous Woman Abroad.” 

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Mary Schäffer Warren passed away in 1939 at the age of 78 and is now across the street from her home Tarry-A-While in the old Banff Cemetery. She remains an iconic figure of early Banff and her passion for the wild places of the Rockies and her luminous lantern slides continue to resonate with people today.

With support from organizations like the Canadian Pacific Railway and the YMCA, the ACC was able to acquire a space in which to hold their first meeting. The ACC was to be a national organization; Wheeler and Parker wanted it to be accessible to anyone who wished to take part, so the founding meeting of the Alpine Club of Canada was held in an accessible location. Not in the mountains, but in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1909 a clubhouse was built in Banff National Park on Sulphur Mountain, about halfway between the Upper Hot Springs and the town of Banff. This would serve the ACC as a base of operations until Parks Canada called for its demolition in the 1970s, at which point it was moved to its current location in Canmore.

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After its founding, the ACC turned to guides (many of whom were from Switzerland) already familiar with the western Canadian peaks to show them the ropes. Wheeler became the Alpine Club of Canada's first president. Men and women from across the country quickly joined the Club and the organization flourished.

Lantern slides were useful tools for the ACC to use for marketing, promotional, and administrative reasons – the coloured slides from first ascent expeditions could have trip details written directly onto the matting paper, creating a colourful and thorough record that would appeal to club members and the public alike.

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The Alpine Club of Canada continues to flourish today, maintaining backcountry huts throughout Alberta and British Columbia, encouraging people to explore those wild places and to help the club preserve them for those who come later.