the giants and how to fight them

A charming - and near complete - set of 15 glass magic lantern slides depicting the story by the Reverend Richard Newton, 'The Giants and How to Fight Them'. Newton, born in 1813 in Liverpool, later became known as the 'Prince of Preachers to the Young', having dedicated much of his life to teaching the gospel to children after he emigrated to America to study at the Theological Seminary of New York. He wrote many children's books about Christianity and gave regular sermons to the children of his flock, typically attended by more than five hundred at a time.

The title of this sequence might sound like the stuff of mythology and some of the images are certainly pretty eye-catching - but in fact the 'giants' that Newton was referring to were in fact the sins against Christianity. Thus he wrote: "When I speak of giants, I do not mean physical giants, but moral giants. I do not mean men with huge bodies, four or five times larger than common-sized men; but I mean great sins of different kinds, which may well be called giants. I want now to speak about five giants that we should all unite trying to fight against. One of these is a good way off from us; but the rest are very near us. Listen to me while I tell you who these giants are, and the way in which we must try to fight them..."

This set, comprising 15 glass slides in the standard 3¼ x 3¼" format, was published by York & Son of London and is believed to date to the 1870s. Click here to see a short video clip of these slides as a magic lantern show.

York & Sons were founded in 1863. Their slides are identifiable by the distinctive logo which features a 'Y' entwined with a serpent. They were one of the few companies that were using life models at the time - i.e. costumed actors posing against elaborate backdrops to illustrate famous works of literature. These series became hugely popular and won the company international acclaim.