Magic lantern slide set 'Jessica's Prayer'

A set of magic lantern life model slides, entitled 'Box', 4 Jessica’s Prayer (also known as 'Jessica's First Prayer') 11 slides, 10 life model slides and one text hymn slide. B&W. Manufactured by York and Son, London, 1884. From a collection of life model magic lantern slides, previously the lending library of Riley Brothers of Bradford.

Life model slides are photographic magic lantern slides in which costumed models are posed in scenes or locations to illustrate narratives, songs and other texts. They were produced commercially between the 1870s and the First World War. Typical subjects included temperance tales of alcoholism and other social vices, popular songs, recitations, comic subjects and religious services. They would come in sets which could be anything from 2 to 60 but averaged 12.

York and Son were one of the largest producers of lantern slides in the second half of the nineteenth century. The firm was founded by Frederick York who set up as a photographic publisher in 1861, and by the later nineteenth century they were selling as many as 100,000 lantern slides per year. Frederick York was succeeded in the business by his son William, but the firm went into liquidation in 1912 and was bought by Newton and Co. It continued to trade under the name York and Son until the later 1940s.