The Heritage Lottery fundedproject to make Whinfields historic collection of lantern slides availableonline has now been completed by the Worcestershire Archive and ArchaeologyService (WAAS), who look after the collection at the Hive. 2018 marked acentury since the donation of 2,532 lantern slides by Whinfields widow, LauraJane Curtler, to the Worcester Diocesan Church House Trust.
Justin Hughes, CommunityProjects Officer for the WAAS, said: The significance of the entire collectionbeing available online cannot be overestimated. Its incredibly rare to have somany well-preserved slides of local, national and international interestavailable publically.
Whinfield (b. 1862; d. 1917),a local man hailing from Claines, Worcester, used photography to document histravels around the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. Thephotographs, taken over a period of about 40 years between 1870s and the 1910s,include images of culturally important global landscapes, buildings andarchitectural features, some of which no longer exist. Topics includingreligion and organs are also present in the collection. Whinfield, in his roleas an organist, pioneered the use of contemporary technology, using some ofthese slides to project hymn lyrics during services at St. John Baptist Churchin Claines.
During his lifetime,Whinfield shared aspects of his collections with many audiences through alecture titled Tour around the World in 80 minutes. Over the last year, thislecture has been re-enacted and reinterpreted, with public performances at bothSt John Baptist Church in Claines and Huntington Hall in Worcester.
It is hoped that throughmaking the slide sets available globally, the collection will inspire furtherresearch into the unique technology represented by the lantern slide, continuedJustin.
The collection is accessiblefor research / reference purposes through the Explore the Past initiative,located at the Hive in Worcester. It is also now digitally available on the UKLantern Society website, Lucerna: https://www.slides.uni-trier.de/collection/index-set.php?id=2500090.
