KellyArc History

KellyArc Company creates elegant architectural accessory units with authentic, turn-of-the-century, glass lantern slides. Nearly one hundred years after their height of popularity, lantern slides have long been overshadowed by advances in photographic technology. Our constructions allow these historical images to be enjoyed once again.

There are over 16,000 unique images in my library of slides. With the resources to produce transparent positives from your personal photograph collection. Every unit can be built with a diverse yet personalized vision. Combining the 3¼" by 4" lantern slides into architectural designs yields functional objects that seemingly overlap the boundaries of art, decoration, nostalgia, and modernity.

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A Brief History of Lantern Slides:
Initially, kerosene lanterns projected the photographic images, appropriately called lantern slides, immediately after the invention of photography in 1830's. Gas soon replaced kerosene until the birth of the electric light bulb. Photographic companies quickly established themselves as international documentators, capturing on film the peoples, events, and landscapes on travels around the world. Accompanied by instructional booklets, complete sets of lantern slides on a wide range of subjects were compiled for sale and trade. Created with specific purposes in mind, the majority of lantern slides fall into the following categories:

Travel: These early photographic companies traveled widely and captured scenes from several foreign lands. For the first time ever a large body of people could gather to view these projected images of the world. The earliest expeditions to the Arctic are historically documented on lantern slides.

Scholarship: Objective data supplemented scientific research and were used, along with artworks, as educational tools in the classroom. These projected visual aids allowed large groups of people to see the same image at the same time.

Entertainment: Long before the invention of the moving picture, the popular lantern slides illustrated favorite songs of the time. Not unlike the music videos of today, actors were hired to interpret the lyrics. Once projected, these still images were usually accompanied by a pianist while the audience sang along.