ABSTRACT
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the combination of magic lantern and lecturer had proven enduringly popular in a wide variety of shows. From the 1870s and 1880s, however, a new breed of lecturer began courting modern ideas of celebrity, very often establishing themselves in a particular field (perhaps as war correspondents, explorers or scientists) before turning their hand to this lucrative career. A few of these individuals also took advantage of modern transportation networks to tour the anglophone world. This chapter presents a case study of medical lecturer Dr Anna Mary Longshore Potts, who with fellow American lecturer Dr Joel Charles Harrison toured twice in the 1880s and 1890s, bringing a stereopticon lantern with her on the second tour. Longshore Potts lectured mostly to women on subjects including female anatomy: a topic that had most often been the province of the primarily male medical profession. The chapter argues that by disseminating ideas and images about female bodies in a popular register, Longshore Potts was able to shock, fascinate and inform women in equal measure, a strategy that allowed her to turn a substantial profit and fulfil her own mission to educate women concerning their own good health.
