Grotesque magic lantern slide from the late-18th century

A panoramic magic lantern slide made by an unknown artist sometime between 1780 and 1820. Features fantastical beasts and folk monsters.

Itinerant showmen and lanternists (sometimes known as galantees or savoyards) crossed borders showing slides depicting ghosts and apparitions as well as satirical or even newsworthy events, bringing visual evidence of events to a mostly illiterate public. These were most often men operating alone, carrying his lantern and slides in a box strapped to his back, but he might sometimes have been accompanied by a musician or by family members providing other parts of the show.