Virtual Exhibitions

Temporary exhibitions previously displayed in the galleries

Alfred Hitchock Presents: Celebrating the Centenary of Britain's Greatest Filmmaker
D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Cinema
Houdini and the Magic of the Movies
Jubilation: Ceremony and the Crown

Other exhibitions can be found on EVE - Everybody's Virtual Exhibition. EVE allows you to create your own exhibitions, please see the examples on the site. Information on creating your own virtual exhibitions based on the Centre's materials can be found on the EVE home page.

General selections from the collections of the Centre

The Centre's outstanding international significance comes from the breadth of its historical scope as well as the rarity of its holdings: among them Lumière Cinématographe No. 108 (only about 400 were ever made, and perhaps 50 survive worldwide); a 1671 edition of Athanasius Kircher's Ars Magna Lucis et Ombrae, the first book to illustrate the magic lantern; and William K. Laurie Dickson's own annotated copy of his History of the Kinetoscope, Kinetograph and Kinetophonograph, published in 1895. More details on the scope of the Centre's resources can be found on the Scope of the Bill Douglas Centre's collections page. Below we provide an opportunity to sample some of the areas of particular interest in the collections.

Views of the world around: the Panorama
The Magic Lantern
Views at home: 19th century optical entertainments
Charlot: the cult of Charlie Chaplin
Cinema as institution: films and stars of the 30s and 40s
Disneymania