The Cooke Affair: Astronomical Lantern Lecturing as a Political Strategy

Around the world, science communication has long been used as a tactic by scientists to gain public support. Within the field of astronomy, visualisation has been a component part of this tactic and lantern slides were used by astronomical lecturers for this purpose well into the 20th century. The forced retirement in 1926 of Ernest Cooke, Government Astronomer of New South Wales, and near closure of the Sydney Observatory was a particularly sharp example of this process. Combined with contemporary journalistic and literary descriptions, archival evidence from Cooke's slides held within the Powerhouse Museum collection reveal the importance that lantern slide lecturing held in these communication practices. Although there are uniquely Australian aspects to this dispute, the use of images reveals wider patterns. To complement recent interest in the epistemic image in science and the role of epistemic emotions, we suggest additional categories of didactic and affective images that were used by Cooke and others in their communication of astronomy to the public.