Projecting Knowledge. The Optical Lantern and Science Communication, 1880s–1940s, edited by Dulce Da Rocha Gonçalves, Nico de Klerk, Frank Kessle and Jamilla Notebaard, focuses on the role of the optical lantern in knowledge transmission.

From the 1880s until well into the twentieth century, the optical lantern was an immensely important tool to disseminate knowledge both within and outside academia, particularly in Western Europe and the United States. This volume maps the lantern-illustrated lecture from various perspectives, with contributions on how to research historical audiences, on the spaces where projection was used, on the role of images as evidence, on the shifts in pedagogy that were supported by the projected image, and on the archives and sources that provide access to material that allows an understanding of the multiple ways in which the medium was used.

Jacob Ward (New Books Network) interviews co-editors Dulce Da Rocha Gonçalves, Nico de Klerk and Frank Kessler on the history of the projection lantern. The editors also argue that knowledge is not simply transmitted through media technologies but is also shaped and transformed by them.