On the Road Again: Benjamin Malden and the Touring Lantern Lecturer

Abstract

Benjamin Malden (1838-1933) was regarded as the most successful touring lantern lecturer of the nineteenth-century in the UK, and he was arguably Britain’s most prestigious lecturer for a period from the early 1870s onwards. My chapter details the key features of his career and the characteristics that distinguished his lantern lectures. More particularly, my chapter argues that Malden’s success was enabled by the increasing commercial and institutional organisation of public lecturing in the second half of the 19th century. Malden’s career is at the forefront of both the professionalisation of public lecturing and the lantern trade. When Malden retired in December 1899 after a career of over thirty years, the Optical Magic Lantern Journal noted that he had ‘probably made more money by his lantern lectures than any other lecturer.’ By 1893, he had reputedly given 600 lectures at the Royal Polytechnic and another 3000 on the road. His lectures could fill the most distinguished city venues, and his staple market was the provincial societies devoted to popular education Malden’s career encapsulates how far the lantern trade had come from the itinerant and seasonal galantee showman. Yet how did one get to be a touring lantern lecturer? What were the different networks and exhibition circuits used by touring lecturers? What, if anything, distinguished the professional lecturer from amateur presenters? Analysis of Malden’s performative strategies and technical innovations, as well as newspapers reviews and audience responses, provides a unique insight into the emergence of the professional lantern lecturer.