John Plunkett

This book tells the story of the growth of picturegoing as a popular habit between 1800 and 1914. Encouraged by urbanisation and changes in transportation, education, and leisure patterns, the regular and widespread provision of exhibitions and shows became a defining characteristic of cultural life. Painted panoramas and dioramas awed with enormous tableaux; the stereoscope immersed viewers in a 3D world; the many varieties of peepshow promised a marvellously garish experience of patriotic battles, gruesome murders, and far-off places. If that was not enough, the ever-versatile magic lantern projected hundreds of thousands of slides of every imaginable subject, from travelogues and temperance tales to illustrated hymns and adaptations of popular fiction. Then, after 1896, audiences experienced the cinematograph, and were able to enjoy film at the many fixed venue cinemas that emerged from around 1908. Moving and projected images were displayed not only in town halls, theatres, and other large exhibition spaces, but also in workhouses, schools, churches, empty shops, and fairgrounds. Picturegoing, in all its variety, became a national pastime, integrating itself more and more pervasively into the structures of everyday life as the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries progressed. Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, this book details the shows that were on offer, where and what they were, the networks and infrastructure they existed within, and, above all, how their audiences experienced them.

An anthology of both familiar and previously unavailable primary texts that illuminate the world of nineteenth-century ideas. An expert team introduce and annotate a range of original social, cultural, political and historical documents necessary for contextualising key literary texts from the Victorian period.

An anthology of both familiar and previously unavailable primary texts that illuminate the world of nineteenth-century ideas. An expert team introduce and annotate a range of original social, cultural, political and historical documents necessary for contextualising key literary texts from the Victorian period.

Multimedia Histories: From the Magic Lantern to the Internet is the first book to explore in detail the vital connections between today’s digital culture and an absorbing history of screen entertainments and technologies. Its range of coverage moves from the magic lantern, the stereoscope and early film to the DVD and the internet. By reaching back into the innovative media practices of the nineteenth century, Multimedia Histories outlines many of the revealing continuities between nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century multimedia culture. Comprising some of the most important new work on multimedia culture and history by key writers in this growing field, Multimedia Histories will be an indispensable new sourcebook for the discipline. It will be an important intervention in rethinking the boundaries of Anglo-American film and media history.

Multimedia Histories: From the Magic Lantern to the Internet is the first book to explore in detail the vital connections between today’s digital culture and an absorbing history of screen entertainments and technologies. Its range of coverage moves from the magic lantern, the stereoscope and early film to the DVD and the internet. By reaching back into the innovative media practices of the nineteenth century, Multimedia Histories outlines many of the revealing continuities between nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century multimedia culture. Comprising some of the most important new work on multimedia culture and history by key writers in this growing field, Multimedia Histories will be an indispensable new sourcebook for the discipline. It will be an important intervention in rethinking the boundaries of Anglo-American film and media history.

Victorian culture was dominated by an ever expanding world of print. A tremendous increase in the volume of books, newspapers, and periodicals, was matched by the corresponding development of the first mass reading public. Victorian Print Media: A Reader consists of edited extracts from nineteenth-century sources which discuss all aspects of the production and circulation of print media. The extracts are organised into themed sections such as authorship and journalism, reading spaces, and the influence of print.

Victorian culture was dominated by an ever expanding world of print. A tremendous increase in the volume of books, newspapers, and periodicals, was matched by the corresponding development of the first mass reading public. It has long been acknowledged that the growth of the popular publishing industry played an instrumental role in the success of most major Victorian novelists. Traditional critical positions have, nevertheless, recently expanded into a much broader field concerned with media history, book studies, modes of textual production and consumption, and concepts of 'popular literature'. One of most notable current critical trends is a renewed interest in the importance of all aspects of nineteenth-century print culture. Victorian Print Media: A Reader collects primary sources from nineteenth century journals, newspapers, and periodicals into an anthology that can be used for teaching purposes, but is also intended to complement and encourage ongoing research. The extracts are organised into ten themed sections. Each section addresses a specific conceptual or historical issue, such as the impact of serial publication upon practices of reading and authorship. The themed sections demonstrate the multiple factors upon which the aesthetics of print media depended, making this anthology of use to all researchers, teachers, and students of the period.

This history of the interaction between the monarchy and the media focuses on the reign of Queen Victoria. It argues that the development of popular print and visual media in the 19th century helped to reinvent the position of the monarchy in national life. It includes an account of the emergence of royal journalism and the impact of photography.