A collection of just under 2,500 lantern slides collected by Arthur Edgar Beet, an academic in the Applied Science Department at the University of Sheffield in the first half of the 20th century.

The collection covers a wide variety of subjects, including photographs of late 19th century Sheffield, illustrations of scenes from children’s tales and Bible stories, images of the Boer War and the First World War, portraits of important historical figures, and photographs of London and European cities. The majority of the slides are standard UK lantern slides 3¼ inches square, but there are also a wide range of panorama slides, single slipper slides, double slipper slides, glass pivot slides, rackwork slides and rare and unique homemade glass slides.

A large addition to his collection was made in 1954 by John Arthur Southern, who bequeathed to Beet his own collection of 800 slides and a late 19th century projector.

For further details of this collection please see the finding aid, and the link to digitised images in the External Documents section below.