Eleonora will virtually present her latest research at ICHST2025. This is her presentation’s abstract:
Icelandic Voices: Olive Chapman Murray’s 1930s Magic Lantern Travelogues of Europe’s Forgotten Land
Magic lantern travelogues captivated late nineteenth and early twentieth-century audiences, transporting viewers to distant, unfamiliar lands. These visual narratives, however, evidently reflected their creators’ biases, shaping public perceptions and knowledge of the world. One traveller who contributed to this genre was Olive Murray Chapman (1892-1977), a widow who journeyed independently through regions like Cyprus, the British Raj (India), Lapland, and Iceland. Her lantern performances in the 1930s, centred on Iceland, were especially popular and took her on tours across England, Scotland, and Ireland. Alongside spoken accounts, she projected personal photographs and watercolours. These performances did more than document landscapes- they constructed an imaginary world.
This presentation explores Chapman’s Iceland lectures, highlighting how she framed the voices of the Icelandic people within her narratives. Chapman believed that women’s sensitivity and relational skills gave them a unique advantage as explorers, enabling them to gain the trust of local populations, especially women and children, and access their inner lives. With traditional exploration opportunities dwindling, she argued that a more nuanced, human-centred approach was emerging- one in which women were especially well-suited to excel.
By incorporating self-produced imagery of Iceland’s landscapes and local voices, Chapman’s lantern travelogues did not just offer visual tours; they also filled unknown spaces with meaning, bridging distant places with her audience’s imaginations. This analysis contributes to discussions on gender, exploration, and knowledge circulation within the history of science and travel, highlighting how local voices were framed in global exchanges.
Check out the conference’s programme here: https://www.ichst2025.org/program-outline !