Flights of fancy: The Production, Reception and Implications of Lawrence Hargrave’s Magic Lantern Lecture ‘Lope de Vega’

This chapter considers a collection of magic lantern slides developed by the late nineteenth-century gentleman-inventor Lawrence Hargrave. Although best known for his early ideas and experimentation in aeronautics and for his efforts to build and test machines for manned flight, Hargrave also held a curious theory about the Spanish discovery and exploration of Australia. It is his unique, albeit circumstantial and unsubstantiated, hypothesis ‘Lope de Vega’ that forms the basis of his engagement with magic lantern technology. As a suite of slides it represents a strange confluence of images gathered, altered and ordered by Hargrave from a variety of sources. Among the eclectic assortment of raw materials Hargrave drew upon to build his visual argument were a number of rock engravings he had observed in Sydney Harbour. This chapter addresses the genesis, production and potential impacts of Hargrave’s magic lantern lecture.