Half-hour tour

Illustrated lectures about travel were popular among professional lantern showmen, accounting for about 50% of all illustrated lectures.

Hawaii, given its exotic beauty and spectacularly dramatic scenery, was the perfect subject for an illustrated lecture.  This huge broadside (27 x 40”) is for a 1910 show by C. N. Walker—probably a combination of movies and slides.  It wins first prize for evocative promotional language, and sheer visual impact. Hard to walk by it!

The slide of Hawaii is by Branson DeCou, a travel lecturer known for the beauty of the coloring in his “Dream Pictures,” and for combining music with his images.

The lantern-slide touring box for the Hawaiians Travelogue belonged to Mildred Clemens. Clemens, a distant relative of Mark Twain, combined lantern slides with native Hawaiian singers and dancers.

Next: Franck—“Prince of Vagabonds”