1880s Hiram & Margaret Crosby Family Photos

When I was a child in the late 1960s and early 1970s, my family would sometimes gather in our livingroom after dinner to look at family slides. The color slides were mostly of vacations, the shots usually taken by my father. A was a fun family activity for us. And there was always a bit of a production to ensure the slides were in the correct order, not upside down, and not backwards in the projector's slide carousel!

I thought this was a modern-day invention. I had never heard of a Magic Lantern and never dreamed that in the previous century, some of my ancestors partook in the same activity! 

Magic Lantern Slides

These Crosby family photos were digitalized from a set of magic lantern slides. Magic lanterns were the precursor to modern day projectors. They were used to display hand-painted or photographic glass slides, sometimes depicting photographs, stories, or scenes. By shining a bright light through a slide, its image would be projected onto a wall. Early lanterns used whale oil lamps, but by the 1880s, limelight (a bright light produced by heating lime with a flame) and incandescent lamps were becoming more common. 

The color in these family photos was hand painted onto black and white photographic glass slides—an artform that was common before the invention and widespread use of color film.

In 2025, I was serendipitously contacted by someone who had recently purchased a lot at an estate sale in Delmar, New York, and came to be in possession of 18 magic lantern slides from the 1880's. From the labels on some of the slides, he believe them to be of Col. Hiram Crosby and his family. After some googling, he came across this website and contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in the slides. I certainly was and am very grateful that he contacted me!

NOTE: Some of the slides were labelled on their wooden frames, but they may not have been be accurately labelled. The year on the label may relate to when the slide was made instead of when the photo was taken. I have assumed that all images are of the family of Hiram Benjamin and Margaret (Ackerman) Crosby, but this might not be correct.

Click on an image below to see an enlargement and its label if it had one.