The Marvelous Magic Lantern

Join us for a magical evening at Homewood Museum.  Before moving pictures, the magic lantern was used often used for entertainment, projecting images onto screens or walls.  Emma Straus will discuss the history and technology of the magic lantern.  The audience will also get to experience the magic lantern in person with Straus presentation of her short story, Whalebones.

Whalebones takes readers to the edge of seaside cliffs, where the cottage of Jeanne and Cordelia sits. The two women wait for the whales to wash up so that they may give the whales their last rites, by slowly and carefully collecting their remains to make something new. Contrary to traditional whaling, which would take a twenty-man crew, the two women take great care in collecting the blubber and baleen for corsets they themselves will never get to wear.