Magic lantern slide: Christchurch Priory, the Shelley Tomb

Glass; paper; photographic emulsion

Description:

The magic lantern was an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century. Its use continued into the 20th century.  

William Weaver Baker created this photographic image. It shows a memorial by Henry Weekes to Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The memorial depicts Mary Shelley holding the body of Percy, who died by drowning in 1822.

Its intended location was a church in Bournemouth where Percy’s heart was buried. When permission was refused, it ended up in Christchurch Priory, Dorset. This is one of a series of slides showing the interior of Christchurch Priory by Baker.

This object was selected by a member of the LGBTQ+ community as part of the Out and About: Queering the Museum at RAMM project. Listen to the attached audio (transcript available) to find out why.

Visual description: A black-and-white photographic slide. The subject is a white stone tomb topped by a sculpture of a woman holding the body of a man. The image was taken from behind an iron fence which partially obscures the inscription on the tomb.