This object is a rectangular leather box with a pair of buckled straps. The lid lifts off completely. It contains a set of 100 3×3″ glass astronomical teaching slides. These are stored in order, stacked directly next to each other, and insulated inside the leather box by three layers of corregated cardboad. A paper handbook and two handwritten notes sit on top of the slides.
The handbook, which has a blue cover, contains the text of the lecture, and descriptions
Each slide is 3″ x 3″, with paper edges.
Accession Number: 2019.ast.157
Alternative Name:
Leather, Glass, Cardboard, Paper, Metal: Iron Alloy
On a paper label stuck to the top of the box: “CANADIAN NATION EXPRESS
FROM TORONTO, ONT
Ex[??????] CHarges on
this [?????]ment are PREPAID”
Handwritten on a piece of paper laid on top of the slides: “Dept of Astronomy
Complete set received from
From Neil Neilson
Etobicoke Board of Education
as per telephone conversation
FOR ARCHIVES”
On a second handwritten piece of paper laid on top of the slides:
“41 MIssing
Portion of the Moon
1976 Oct 19
It has now been replaced with a substitute from [our?] collection
MR”
On the cover of the handbook: “A HANDBOOK
TO ACCOMPANY
A SET OF
ONE HUNDRED
ASTRONOMICAL
LANTERN SLIDES
PREPARED BY
C. A. CHANT, M.A., Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
TORONTO, 1930”
Box: Length = 37.5, Width = 12.5, Height = 12
These lantern slides made up an educational lecture on astronomy and astronomical techniques intended for a public audience. The handbook provides details about each slide, so that anyone can give the lecture.
Very Good: The set is complete, and in very good condition. The handbook has a badly ripped cover, and has been bent in order to fit it into the box. The leather of the case is in good condition, although it is scratched and worn in places. The straps are worn and cracked; one has broken through entirely, but survives (and is now stored inside the box.
Associated Instruments:
Author: Clarence A. Chant Manufacturer: Unknown
Date of Manufacture: Slides: c. 1930
From notes included with this box, it seems this set of slides was donated back to the university in 1976 by Neil Nelson at the Etobicoke Board of Education. It appears that when it was first donated it was missing slide #41, which was subsequently replaced at some point from another set of slides. The set was likely kept at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill until 2008, upon the sale of the observatory. It was stored at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics until 2017, when it was moved to a new storage location in McLennan Physical Laboratories.
Additional Information and References:
Historical Notes:
Themes: