The Dead Christ

This is glass slide No. 016 from Soldiers of the Cross.

Soldiers of the Cross was an illustrated lecture, combining photographic glass slides with short film segments and musical accompaniment, to relate the stories of Christ and the early Christian martyrs. 

It was conceived and developed in 1899-1900 by Commandant Herbert Henry Booth, son of the Salvation Army founder William Booth. It premiered at the Melbourne Town Hall on 13 September 1900 and eventually toured Australia and overseas before the final performance in Melbourne on 22 November 1920.

These glass slides are all that remain of the production, with no moving image or text copies of the narration known to survive. Combining narration, film footage, illustrations and music, Soldiers of the Cross was a forerunner to Australia’s first feature film.