Lantern slides

I'm posting this inquiry on behalf of a colleague who is not on the
list. She has been informed that these images are an American type
of lantern slide, but her primary concern involves cleaning the
items and, if possible, finding a resource to learn more about the
source (Victor Animatograph). Any help is most welcome, and thank
you in advance.

The slides are about 2 1/4 by 2 3/4.  Cardboard, with grommets in
each corner, hold very thin pieces of glass together.  Or at least I
assume it's two pieces of glass but they are very thin.  It also
seems that some of the slides are hand colored.  The cardboard is
stamped with Victor Animatograph, Davenport, IA on almost every one.
The slides, of European cathedrals, were used for presentations in
the late 1920s.

What I really want to know is are these a type of lantern slide?
Were these widely used?  And the big question: how to care for and
store them.  Oh, someone said to clean the dust off of them with
distilled water and a Q tip, which doesn't sound like a good thing
to do.

Marcia Segal


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:47
                 Distributed: Wednesday, March 29, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-47-020
                                  ***