Please join us for a free webinar highlighting material in Princeton University Library’s Special Collections on Friday, December 4, 2020 at 2pm EST.

This December we will offer you a tour of our collection of pre-zoom, pre-cinema optical devices and prints, rare artifacts designed for shared public entertainment or personal moments of wonder, leading up to the invention of the motion picture. Julie Mellby, Graphic Arts Curator, will be joined by Christopher Collier, Executive Director, and Jesse Crooks, Operations Director and Head Projectionist for Renew Theaters, who will share some of the history and treasures of Princeton’s Garden Theater.

Through a series of live webcams, we will attempt 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.

Please register in advance at the 'External Link' below.