MM - 700 Miles in a French House Boat: The Travels of Henry Mercer

700 Miles in a French House Boat: The Travels of Henry Mercer

Wednesday, May 24, 2023
6pm - 7pm
Elkins Gallery - Mercer Museum 

$15 Adults / $10 BCHS Members

This special Preservation Month program at the Mercer Museum highlights an extraordinary 1889 travel collection of Henry Mercer's glass lantern slides. Lantern slides were an early method of capturing images and predecessor of the modern slide projector.

From May to September 1889, Mercer Museum founder Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930) journeyed down the Rhône, Allier, and Loire Rivers in France on a houseboat. Making frequent stops to visit sites of historical interest, Mercer dutifully documented his voyage with photographs, sketches, and a narrative manuscript which he titled “Seven Hundred Miles in a French House Boat.” The lantern slides taken during this river trip offer a unique perspective of historical sites and local customs.