HIAWATHA
Valparaiso University Special Collections presents an evening of magic lantern and early cinema entertainment…featuring the 35mm restoration of HIAWATHA – a collaborative film restoration project among CFA, Valparaiso University and Colorlab (more on the restoration project here).
Program 1
THE AMERICAN MAGIC-LANTERN THEATER’S VICTORIAN SPRING CELEBRATION, Performed by Terry Borton and Nancy Stewart
A traditional Victorian magic lantern show of dramatic stories, spectacular songs, hilarious comics and epic poetry, projected by a biunial magic lantern from the 1890s. Featuring passages from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, with lantern slides by Joseph Boggs Beale.
Program 2
THE PICTORIAL STORY OF HIAWATHA REVISITED, Organized by Artemis Willis (University of Chicago) and Andy Uhrich (Indiana University)
A partial reconstruction of Valparaiso University alumni Katherine Ertz-Bowden and Charles Bowden’s illustrated lecture of 1904. Featuring the Bowden’s original lantern slides from Valparaiso Special Collections, 35mm restorations of their films from Chicago Film Archives and musical accompaniment by David Drazin, based on music composted by Frederick R. Burton for the Hiawatha Pageant performed in Desparats, Ontario by the Garden River Ojibwe tribe in 1902-03.