Welcome to the third installment of the In A Sense series. These blogposts are linked with the In A Sense tactile exhibit currently on display in the Dalnavert Museum Visitor’s Center. For additional resources, follow the links at the bottom of this post. To see the full exhibit, drop by the museum or book a tour through our website.
When one thinks of the Victorian era, what comes to mind is often visual: the bustling gowns, the Art Nouveau paintings, the architecture, the toys and books and letters. While sight has always been an important aspect of society, sight as a tool for wonder and scientific discovery specifically impacted Victorian life. Furthermore, the consumption of particular entertainments and the use of sight in research embedded the way sight is seen today. Fashions, art, and the rise of aids such as braille were important, as well as the strong links between sight, science, and the imagination. A popular case study of these links comes from the ideas and inventions of Scottish philosopher David Brewster, an optical household name if ever there was one.
Image courtesy of the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society
David Brewster was a natural philosopher and inventor, best known for creating the kaleidoscope in 1817. His inventions and ideas were often talked about in magazines and home journals as well as scientific papers, making him a kind of people’s scientist in the realm of optics. Brewster was quoted as saying that
“[The kaleidoscope was] constructed in such a manner as either to please the eye by an ever-varying succession of splendid tints and symmetrical forms, or to enable the observer to render permanent such as may appear most appropriate for any of the branches of the ornamental arts.”
Through the kaleidoscope, one could “link the pleasures of the eye with the occupations of the hand, bridging the ocular and the tactile. . . through a kind of transfiguration of the commonplace.” While there had been other optical toys and tools before this time, contemporaries like The Philosophical Magazine and Journal saw a difference with this particular toy, saying
“In the memory of man, no invention, and no work, whether addressed to the imagination or to the understanding, ever produced such an effect. A universal mania for the instrument seized all classes, from the lowest to the highest, from the most ignorant to the most learned; and every person not only felt, but expressed the feeling, that a new pleasure had been added to their existence.”
Kaleidoscopes therefore became a staple in 19th Century homes, used both for science and entertainment.
Image courtesy of the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society
Later in the century, similar predictions of “universal mania” would also be made of the Magic Lantern, a type of slide projector that used backlit pictures and paintings to create shows. Projectors have been used since the 1600s, with the Victorian version being considered an extension of the kaleidoscope for its ability to both entertain and reveal scientific discoveries. Brewster himself said that:
“Of all the sciences, Optics is the most fertile in marvelous expedients. The power of [Magic Lanterns to bring] the remotest objects within the very grasp of the observer, and of swelling into gigantic magnitude the almost invisible bodies of the material world, never fails to inspire with astonishment even those who understand the means by which these prodigies are accomplished.”
Magic Lanterns were added to Victorian homes and venues as part of parlours and show rooms, the same places where one sat to hear music, watch a world traveller lecture about a far-off culture, or admire the hidden messages and erotica within the tiny glass magnifiers of stanhopes.
Image courtesy of NYU
The significance of these optical objects was two-fold: they could be illuminating, helping to reveal aspects of scientific discovery and create art as in the case of the original kaleidoscope; or they could be obscuring, working as intentional illusions to trick the mind and entertain. In other words, “the same machines that may keep the masses in a state of mystification may work in the service of enlightenment also,” a principle which is still used today.
Articles and Books:
Film in Canada: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-history-of-film-in-canada
Huhtamo, Erkki “All the World’s a Kaleidoscope». A Media Archaeological Perspective to the Incubation Era of Media Culture” p. 139-153, https://doi.org/10.4000/estetica.982
Hunt, Verity. Raising a Modern Ghost: The Magic Lantern and the Persistence of Wonder in the Victorian Education of the Senses, https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ravon/2008-n52-ravon2573/019806ar/
Jenkins, Bill “The mind’s magic lantern: David Brewster and the scientific imagination” Pages 1094-1108, Published online: 14 Feb 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2021.1883091
The Museum and Victorian Literature: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8144&context=etd
Theatre in Winnipeg: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/43/theatrehistory.shtml
Victorian Tactile Imagination Conference (2013) file:///C:/Users/Alexa/Downloads/ntn-1465-tilley.html
Victorians Live: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/victorian-literature-and-culture/article/victorians-live/9A43DBA1274803E4EE8835FA5B557943
Other:
Vancouver footage 1907: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqk0yH2zy9s
https://www.bookswithoutink.com/events
https://www.craftingcommunities.net/learn
https://omekas.library.uvic.ca/s/crafting/page/about
For more go to https://www.friendsofdalnavert.ca/sight