Michigan: Grand Rapids Public Library Finds Rare Set of ‘Magic Lantern’ Slides Showing Early Tuskegee Institute

From Fox 17 (Grand Rapids):

The folks over at the Grand Rapids Public Library made a fascinating discovery while digging through their massive archives back in March 2021, and are now sharing them with the public for Black History Month.

Thanks to a Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the archivists were able to digitize some of their assets that had so far sat mostly uncatalogued.

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As they were digitizing portions of their collections, archivists stumbled upon 69 ‘magic lantern’ slides.

These slides were images printed or painted onto a small glass piece, which were then projected onto a wall or screen using a device often referred to as a ‘magic lantern‘.

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Thanks to some assistance from Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks, the archivists were able to confirm the slides showed imagery from the Tuskegee Institute, now known as Tuskegee University, during the very early 1900s.

View the Complete Collection of Slides (via Grand Rapids Museum)

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Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries