Postdoc: LENK Sabine (UA/ULB) Supervisor: VANHAESEBROUCK Karel (ULB)

Different Belgian interest groups used the lantern to disseminate their convictions. Some operated publicly, trying to win an audience beyond their own community (church, missions, charities), others more discreetly, collectively or individually.

Many masonic slide sets, mostly of American origin, have survived and are accessible on the internet, but little is known about the way the Freemasons (and other spiritual groups) used them to educate aspirants. The study of their written and visual heritage should be able to provide information on the discourse that traditionally accompanied these slide projections.

Research on another aspect of the project, namely the use of optical lanterns in Belgian academies and universities with a masonic vocation, will be made possible thanks to the collections of plaques archived in the archives of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Professors such as Émile Waxweiler, founder of the Solvay Institute of Sociology, or professor Jean Massart, creator of the botanical garden in Auderghem, used photographic glass plates to make it easier for students to understand their theories.

A third aspect will entail their comparison with Belgian Catholic institutions. The comparative analysis will aim to uncover similarities and differences, as well as the narrative strategies and symbolic rhetoric of the two groups in their struggles to gain and maintain their power within public sectors.