LAUSR

means of representing the world and transmitting it. It focuses on “pedagogical inventions” and the success of projection plates, which depended on the fidelity of the images produced and their “didactic effectiveness,” which in turn relied on the quality of “listener-spectators,” that is to say, the audiences (p. 27). Several chapters investigate how projection plates were used for teaching certain disciplines at university, especially art history, archaeology, earth science, and architecture. For example, it is interesting how photographer Adolphe Braun revolutionized the teaching of technical drawing in the textile industry. Photography provided new images of flowers that replaced engravings for training draftsmen, yet there are few traces of this use by direct testimony. Some of the authors analyze learned societies’ use of plates: lecturers attracted large audiences by using images to illustrate their talks. This fascination with images, along with their tendency to permeate memory, are good reasons for using them in primary education. Equally, images demonstrate and lend weight to discussions on explorations and discoveries in economic and physical geography. Although some chapters analyze the same actors and institutions, the volume offers an interesting synthesis of recent research on bygone pedagogical practices from over half a century ago and their conservation in French university collections.