Thursday, October 1 marks the re-opening of the newly restored Capitol Theatre in the Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood on the city's near west side.

The Capitol Theatre features several framed reproductions from Cleveland Public Library's W. Ward Marsh Lantern Slide Collection. When visiting this new destination be sure to stop on the second floor to check out the beautiful images, or view the collection online.

This project was made possible with support from the Friends of the Cleveland Public Library.

Learn more about the W. Ward Marsh Lantern Slide Collection and Cinema Archive here.

The W. Ward Marsh Lantern Slide Collection offers a glimpse of the American cinema from 1915 to 1928. This legacy of film history can be viewed from the Library’s online Image Collections or by browsing the reference book of images in the Literature Department.

The lantern slides, which were used as advertisements for coming attractions in silent movie theatres, are part of the Cleveland Public Library’s W. Ward Marsh Cinema Archive. The lantern slides were made by printing a photographic negative onto a square of glass, typically three inches by four inches. Black and white photographs could be enhanced by tinting, toning, dyeing, or by hand painting areas of transparent color over the image. A second piece of clear glass, known as the "cover glass" or protecting glass was laid down on top, and the edges of the two pieces were bound with strips of black binding paper.

Mr. Marsh (1893-1971) was movie critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for over 50 years. He joined the newspaper in 1915, starting as a police reporter. He began writing movie reviews in 1919 and continued until his retirement in 1970. The slides were donated to the Library in 1972, along with 70,000 movie stills, scrapbooks, clippings and film reviews.