The National Cinema Museum holds one of the most important collections of magic lantern glass slides in the world: over 8,000 artefacts – both still and animated – which demonstrate the visual themes used in illuminated projections from the 1700s up until the first decades of the 20th century.

The collection was founded in 1942, when Maria Adriana Prolo bought a few magic lanterns, complete with a series of glass slides, at a flea market in Turin. This simple collection was systematically enlarged over the years, proof of how fond the museum’s founder was of cinema archaeology. After her death, the collection was significantly expanded with items from the UK, thanks to the acquisition of the collection owned by two cinema pioneers: the Englishmen John and William Barnes.

Thanks to an extensive cataloguing and digital imaging project funded by Regione Piemonte, the regional government of Piedmont, we are publishing a first selection of 2,000 glass slides. They have been grouped thematically and can be viewed using several login keywords.