Before Zoom: Cinema, the Zoetrope, and other Optical Devices
Please join us for the latest webinar in Princeton University Library's Special Collections Highlights Series.
Julie Mellby, Graphic Arts Curator, offers a captivating tour of Princeton University Library's collection of pre-cinema optical devices, rare artifacts designed for shared public entertainment or personal moments of wonder leading up to the invention of the motion picture.
Through a series of live webcams, we will attempt to reproduce the phantasmagoria experienced in the past as we peer into 18th-century peepshows, twirl phenakistoscopes, open a gigantic megalethoscope, and crank a miniature cinematograph. Feel the sense of wonder as still images come to life, turning day to night, causing volcanoes to erupt, and conjuring faces to rise from anamorphic chaos.
Christopher Collier, Executive Director at Renew Theaters, and Jesse Crooks, Operations Director and Head Projectionist, will share some of the history and treasures of Princeton Garden Theater.
Register by clicking the black "Begin Registration" box below.
- Date:
- Friday, December 4, 2020
- Time:
- 2:00pm - 3:00pm
- Campus:
- Special Collections
- Audience:
- Friends of Princeton University Library Independent Scholar / Outside Researcher Member of the Public Princeton Alumni Princeton Faculty/Researcher Princeton Staff Princeton Student
- Categories:
- Events
View recordings of previous webinars in the Special Collections Highlights Series.
To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact pulcomm@princeton.edu at least 3 working days in advance.