Collections

Homemade glass slides (39) document historic buildings, fort, rock formations, and harbors of Mackinac Island (Mich.), Arlington Hotel, Petoskey (Mich.), Pointe Aux Barques lighthouse, Chicago (Ill.), including one of a statue of Abraham Lincoln by August Saint-Gaudens in Lincoln Park, and buildings and statues of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (2) seen in 1898-1899, and miscellaneous slides of other locations.

The collection consists of 39 homemade slides documenting Lamont, Mackinaw Island, and Petoskey, Michigan; Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in Port Hope, Michigan; Chicago, including buildings of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 seen in 1898 and 1899; two ships, the launch of the Illinois, April 22, 1899, and the U.S.S. Oregon, returning from the Philippines, 1898; and an interior view of a home in Denver, Colorado; the exterior of Hadden Hall in Debyshire, England; a view of a dock, possibly in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and a few unidentified, miscellaneous slides. Many of the homemade slides have manufactured labels on which are typed “No.,” “Subject,” and “Manufactured by Geo. H. Luther, Austin, Ill.” Some of the slide labels are just slips of paper. The information on the slide labels is handwritten unless otherwise specified in the inventory as being typed. While most of the slides are undated they are clearly a set, so they were likely all made between 1898 and 1899. The slides were not originally numbered, but are now (if they have a label) to facilitate retrieval and use by researchers. The collection probably was in part created and in part collected by George H. Luther. Overall the slides are in good condition and are housed in their original box.