Cinema was only the climax of a long history of Victorian fascination with visual novelty that stretched back to the Georgian era. Film and media historian Ian Christie has been collecting some of these charming and instructive optical objects, and will be demonstrating them 'live' online for his talk for Bruce Castle Museum. Back in 2019, Bruce Castle had welcomed Ian Christie's exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of Robert Paul, Britain's little-known pioneer of 'animated photography', based in Muswell Hill in what is now Haringey.

Ian Christie is Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck College, and has long been fascinated by these anticipations of cinematic spectacle.

To book your place for this free online talk, please follow this link via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/picture-shows-before-cinema-tickets-174105182287