When he was more than 90 years old, an African American businessman named Isaiah Prophet Hatch published the story of his life. Spanning from his birth in 1871 to the 1960s, An Autobiography of I.P. Hatch of New Bern, N.C. is fascinating in many ways, but I found one small part of the book especially unforgettable.
That chapter of his life tells the story of his days as a traveling showman in 1893 and 1894.
From New England to Florida, Hatch traveled to small towns, lumber camps and fishing villages. At every stop, he enthralled audiences with a device called a “stereopticon” that projected vivid, lifelike scenes of the world’s wonders onto a wall or screen by shining a powerful light through glass photographic plates.
Of course, stereopticons sound primitive to us today, but at that time they were a new and exciting technology.
They were really a new, more powerful version of a “magic lantern,” a device invented in the mid-1600s. Especially popular with scientists, illusionists and magicians, those earlier renditions of magic lanterns were simpler, often candle-powered devices.
But the invention of photography in the mid-19th century and the development of new ways to project light more powerfully revolutionized the magic lantern. Those technological innovations made it possible to build devices that could project images far more effectively and for much larger audiences than in the past.
By the late 1800s, stereopticon shows were among the most popular public entertainments in America. They were capable of drawing large crowds in towns and cities, but itinerant showmen like I. P. Hatch also carried stereopticons everywhere from mountain hollows to remote fishing villages that seemed like the end of the Earth.
To appreciate the public’s widespread interest in stereopticons, we have to remember that people did not yet have movies or television in those days, much less the internet.
In addition, many people had little or no access to books, except perhaps a Bible. Rates of illiteracy were high, too, and public libraries few and far between outside of large cities. It was no wonder that so many Americans hungered for the chance to see images of the world beyond their own experience.
The shows themselves ranged from the religious to the risqué. However, the most typical shows, including those of I. P. Hatch, featured scenes of the world’s natural wonders, distant lands, and far-off civilizations.