Publication Date
9-1-2015
Abstract
James Wilson Cassell was a medical doctor based in New York who was also an amateur photographer. He was active in masonic organizations. He often used his collection of magic lantern slides for travel talks at masonic lodges. Most of the slides have Beseler Lantern Slide Company printed on the mounts, but it is unclear whether some of the slides were part of educational sets sold by that company or whether that company only processed and possibly hand-colored Dr. Cassell’s own photographs. The collection with an estimated 700 slides consists mostly of travel images of foreign places and archaeological sites, but also contains photographs from the United States. Less than 150 images have been scanned for online access at this point; those slides with Mexican content appear to date from the early 1920s.
Born in Kentucky, Cassell moved with his family first to Chicago and then to California where he began his medical studies. He received his medical degree in New York City, where he practiced medicine as an ophthalmologist. Collection was donated by David Wilson in 2000.
Comments
Dr. James Wilson Cassell
Born: Lexington, KY Nov. 8, 1863
Died: Scarsdale, NY Nov. 4, 1939
Source: Bulletin of the New York Medical Academy, Dec 1939; 15(12): 814
Dr. Marshall H. Saville, 1867-1935
Curator of Mexican and Central American Archaeology, American Museum of Natural History (then a private museum, Museum of the American Indian)
While on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Marshall Saville conducted extensive fieldwork in Mexico; Saville joined the MAI staff in 1918.
Source: American Museum of Natural History website