Glass Magic Lantern Slide - Mountain House Lake (North South Lake) – Catskill Mountains - circa 1890 - With Wood Display Box

Antique Magic Lantern Slide – Mountain House Lake, (aka North South Lake) Catskill Mountains, 1890s
Wood Display Box included

Step back into the 19th century with this original magic lantern slide featuring the Mountain House Lake, also known as North South Lake, in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Dating to the 1890s, this glass slide captures the grandeur of one of America’s most celebrated natural landmarks, long admired by Hudson River School painters, writers, and travelers seeking inspiration in the wilderness.

This lantern slide would have been used in early projection shows, a popular form of Victorian-era entertainment that blended education and wonder. Its image reflects the era’s fascination with both photography and the natural beauty of the Catskills.

Subject: Mountain House Lake, Catskill Mountains, New York
Medium: Glass magic lantern slide
Condition: Good vintage condition with age-appropriate wear

A perfect collectible for lovers of Catskill history, Hudson River School landscapes, or antique photography, this piece makes a striking addition to any collection of 19th-century ephemera or regional memorabilia.

Size: Approximately 3 1/4 by 4 inches

The magic lantern is an early type of image projector employing painted pictures or photographs on sheets of glass, a lens, and a bright light source. It was mostly developed in the 17th century and commonly used for entertainment purposes. It was increasingly applied to educational purposes during the 1800s and was in wide use until the mid-20th century, when a smaller-format version for photographs on film, marketed and commonly known as a slide projector, superseded it.
In the United States, magic lantern shows were especially popular in formal education settings. From the 1850s, following the lead of the Philadelphia-based Langenheim Brothers, a growing number of slide manufacturers retained stock collections of negatives from which lantern slides could be produced, assembled into thematic boxed sets, and sold to consumers, including universities, companies, clubs and other social organizations.