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Search for a person

The Lucerna database includes biographical records for

  • people involved in making or using lanterns and slides
  • people who featured as subjects of slide sets
  • authors of readings, songs etc. used with slide sets

and many others with some connection to the world of the lantern.

Hints for successful searching

  • If you know exactly the person you’re looking for, the quickest way to find their Lucerna record will be the Full name drop-down list.
  • Otherwise you can use combinations of the other search criteria to find a list of people to browse.
  • If a person doesn’t appear in the Full name list, they aren’t yet recorded in Lucerna (but see the Help button for that criterion for a note on people known by different names).
  • If your search returns no results, check your search criteria – you may have mis-typed something or chosen an impossible combination.
  • For information about how to use the criteria click the adjacent  Example of button offering online help  button.
Enter your search criteria below and click one of the ‘Search’ buttons
Click this button for help
Search by full name

This criterion will find a single identified person.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any person’.

This criterion is most effective when you know exactly the person you are looking for. If you are not sure, or want to find a group of people, some of the other criteria may be more useful.

People are listed alphabetically by surname, with first names and dates of birth and death (or a fl. date of known activity) to help distinguish between people of the same name.

Notes

  • The first names or initials shown are those by which the person was generally known at the time of their relevance to Lucerna. Full first names, where known, can be found in the person’s Lucerna record.
  • Royal people are listed by their first name as a surname, as in ‘VICTORIA, Queen’ or ‘HENRY VIII, King’, and aristocrats by their title, as in ‘BRIDGEWATER, 3rd Duke of’.
  • Pseudonyms are treated as surnames (but note that pseudonyms starting with an article are listed by the article – so for example ‘A Mere Phantom’ appears under A, not M or P).
  • Many people were known by different names at different times. In general the name used in Lucerna is the one most relevant for the person’s relationship to lanterns or slides, though in some cases an alternative name is cross-referenced to the main Lucerna record.
  • Dates and some other biographical details are not shown for people known or believed to be still alive. Please Contact us if you can correct any such information.
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Search by surname or pseudonym

This criterion will find all people of the same surname or pseudonym.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any surname’.

This criterion is most useful for finding a group of related people, or for narrowing down a search where you don’t know the precise identity of the person you’re looking for.

The list shows all the surnames recorded in Lucerna, listed alphabetically.

Notes

  • Royal people are listed by their first name as a surname, as in ‘Victoria’ or ‘Henry’, and aristocrats by their title, as in ‘Bridgewater’.
  • Pseudonyms are treated as surnames (but note that pseudonyms starting with an article are listed by the article – so for example ‘A Mere Phantom’ appears under A, not M or P).
  • Many people were known by different names at different times. In general the name used in Lucerna is the one most relevant for the person’s relationship to lanterns or slides, though in some cases an alternative name is cross-referenced to the main Lucerna record.
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Click this button for help
Search by any part of name

This criterion will find all people whose name contains a given group of characters.

Type the text you want to find into the box. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box empty.

This search is most useful to find a group of people with similar names, or if you are not sure of a person’s full name or the spelling of their name.

Notes:

  • The search will find exactly the group of characters you enter, including any spaces or punctuation marks, and searches the surname and first name(s).
  • Because the search covers all parts of a person’s name it may sometimes give unexpected results. For example, a search for ‘Smith’ will find people with the surname Smith, and also Greensmith, Smithurst, and so on – but also finds Lionel Beale, because his middle name was Smith, although this detail does not show in the list of search results.
  • Keep your search text as short as you can – as you enter more, your search becomes more specific and you are less likely to find results.
  • For some names you may need to try alternative spellings (for example Stephenson or Stevenson), although with a bit of planning you may be able to use a single search (in that example, searching for ‘enson’ would find both spellings of the name, among others).
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Search by organisation or company

This criterion will find people recorded as having been associated with a given organisation.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘any organisation’.

This criterion is most useful for finding a group of people, or for narrowing down a search where you don’t know the precise identity of the person you’re looking for.

The list shows all the organisations recorded in Lucerna for which there are also records of related people, listed alphabetically by the name of the organisation.

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Search for people of whom Lucerna has images

This criterion will find people for whom Lucerna has one or more digital images.

Choose an item from the drop-down list. If you don’t want to apply this criterion, leave the box showing ‘show all records’.

This criterion is most useful for narrowing down the range of people found by a wider search, or if you are particularly interested in finding images of a given person.

Most of the images are from lantern slides showing the person in question, though some are from previously published printed illustrations and internet sources.

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