Geographical light: the magic lantern, the reform of the Royal Geographical Society and the professionalization of geography c.1885-1894

This paper offers an account of the emergence and development of the magic lantern practices of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London. It engages with the incremental, and contested, introduction of the lantern and lantern slides into the meetings of the RGS. The paper first assesses approaches to the magic lantern adopted by historical geographers. It then explores the close connections between the uptake of the technology at the RGS and contemporary geographical societies in Britain and France, and in metropolitan scientific societies and entertainment organisations located close to the RGS. It elucidates the society's engagement with the lantern and the diverse perceptions of the medium within that institution. It traces the lantern's gradual introduction across three RGS meetings between 1886 and 1888, during the society's wider reformation and its promotion of geographical education and science. This recasts Halford Mackinder's 'On the Scope and Methods of Geography' as a lantern-slide lecture. Addressing how, when and why this medium became a part of the RGS's knowledge-making practices, and examining the debates around the use of this technology, the paper relates this process to a broader context of visual practices, the professionalization of academic geography and understandings of nineteenth-century geographical modernity.