Archives at Cornell

Spooner protean views

Collection — manuscript box: 20 - Folder 1

Identifier: 8923

Content Description

4 mounted hand-colored lithographic transformational print transparencies printed by W. Spooner, London. Represented in the collection are Spooner’s Transformations, No. 3 – “The Transformed Sleepers”; Spooner’s Transformations, No. 4 – “Destruction of a Swiss Village by Avalanche”; Spooner’s Transformations, No. 10 – “Napoleon Powerful and Napoleon Powerless”; unnumbered – “Mount Hecla, with the eruption as represented at the Surrey Zoological Gardens.”

Dates

1840

Creator

Spooner, William, active 1831-1854 (Person)

Biographical / Historical

William Spooner was a printer in London. In the mid-1800s, Spooner created a series of optical toys he called “Protean Views,” hand-colored transparencies mounted on a cardboard frame that contained a hidden transformation. When backlit, this transformation became apparent.