31. Breed Wields a Single-Hair Brush 2017-06-14T14:52:35+00:00

31. Women Performers

Lantern Slide Colorist – A Single-Hair Brush

Katherine Gordon Breed was, for a short time, a woman lecturer (see brochure) but her more important role in lantern history was as the medium’s most famous lantern slide colorist.

The coloring for slides was applied in various mediums to the glass. Though the work of the colorists contributed enormously to the success of lantern shows, the colorists themselves were usually anonymous.

Breed was an exception.  She worked for two of the most famous illustrated lecturers, John L. Stoddard, and Burton Holmes.  She traveled with both in an effort to get the colors of their images exactly right, and often painted with a single haired brush to obtain realistic results.  Her coloring of this slide of Yellowstone Falls helped make it the grand finale of the Holmes lecture on Yellowstone National Park.  Click to enlarge the image, and look at the coloring in the fisherman at lower left.  You can see a vintage video of how to make color slides here.

Archival Notes
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