The Halloween Library

Raising a Ghost by the Magic Lantern – Historic Reproduction

Raising a Ghost by the Magic Lantern — antique engraving
Raising a Ghost by the Magic Lantern. Antique engraving from the Ghosts, Magic & Spirit Shows collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This antique engraving of Raising a Ghost by the Magic Lantern brings a moment of history to your wall. Drawn from the Snapshots of the Past archive, it is an authentic piece of documented history.

Order it framed and ready to hang, or unframed to match a frame you already love. Perfect for a home, office, library or classroom wall, and a gift with a story behind it. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

Raising a Ghost by the Magic Lantern

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Pictorial America: Halloween

by James Lantos · Applewood Books · on sale now

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Hollywood Halloween Horrors

The Halloween Library, Volume I · by Edward Moran and James Lantos · Globe Pequot

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Unlike the costumed figures elsewhere on this board, this engraving shows a stage illusion, and its title points to the magic lantern that made such scenes possible. In the 1800s, lantern shows projected painted images onto smoke or glass, letting apparitions seem to rise before a seated audience in a darkened hall. The print comes from the Harry Houdini collection at the Library of Congress, which holds his large store of magic books, periodicals, and ephemera. Its interest lies in how it records a trick built to unsettle viewers, a reminder that the ghost stories now tied to Halloween were once also staged entertainment.

Mediumprint, engraving
Original scan2,400 × 1,515 px · prints to 8 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference3b15252_Raisingaghostbythemagiclantern

More from the Ghosts, Magic & Spirit Shows collection

The Halloween Library gathers the pictures behind the holiday: vintage cards, Library of Congress prints and the illustrations from the Hollywood Halloween Horrors book, with the history behind each one.