Spanish-American War Lantern Slide Set: 36 Images of U.S. Warships, Naval Battles, Troops, and Battlefield Scenes, circa 1898–1905

Spanish American War Glass Lantern Slide

Photograph

Spanish American War glass lantern slide set, circa 1898 to 1905, depicting the conflict through a numbered sequence of military portraits, United States warships, naval engagements, troop movements, artillery, and fighting on land. Produced during the period when the war became a major subject of projected entertainment and illustrated lectures, the set belongs to an early visual culture in which distant warfare was reconstructed for audiences through photographs, reproduced illustrations, portraits, and views of military technology. Contemporary dealers marketed Spanish American War lantern programs almost immediately after the 1898 conflict, including sets organized around President William McKinley, the destruction of the Maine, American and Spanish commanders, the campaigns in Cuba, and the naval war.

Photo archive of 36 black and white photographic and reproduced illustrative images on nine numbered glass lantern sheets, each approximately 7 1/8 x 2 1/8 inches, United States and Cuba, circa 1898 to 1905. Each sheet contains four circular images, with the surviving sequence numbered 1 through 36. The naval material is particularly extensive with multiple American warships appearing broadside or at anchor and underway, accompanied by portraits of uniformed naval officers and scenes of vessels under fire or in rough water. Other images depict sailors or troops gathered around artillery, a landing or embarkation crowded with men, field guns and their crews, soldiers advancing across open ground, men fighting from improvised positions, mounted troops, and battle scenes reproduced from contemporary illustrations. The later numbers shift between portraits of civilian or military figures and active campaign imagery, including armed men in tropical vegetation, an artillery crew maneuvering a field piece, troops moving across broken terrain, and mounted soldiers in the field.

The Spanish American War lasted only from April to August 1898, but it's cultural impact allowed for photo studios to market the conflict to the American public. The conflict was the first American war in which motion picture cameras played a substantial role, and contemporary exhibitors combined films and lantern slides to construct extended accounts from actualities, portraits, drawings, reenactments, and views of military sites. The present sheets show minor scratches, rubbing, and edge wear; no chips or cracks, the images remain substantially legible. Overall in very good condition. A compact numbered visual narrative of the Spanish American War showing how commanders, modern naval power, battlefield action, and American military participation were translated into projected history at the turn of the twentieth century.

Item #23890

Price: $985.00