The VSW Lantern Slide Archive houses a collection of over 60,000 nineteenth and early twentieth century glass lantern slides and related equipment. The slides cover a wide range of subjects, with special focus on geographic locations and scientific subjects, and were primarily used for educational purposes. The VSW holdings include slides from the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences Department of Visual Education, the New York State Education Department Visual Instruction Division and the Keystone View Company.

View our Lantern Slide Collection Finding Aid, which describes the slide collection, related research materials, and projection equipment.

For more information

To request material or begin a search of the collections, please fill out the Collections Inquiry Form.

For further collection-related inquiries, contact Mary Lewandowski, Collections Manager.