A set of five microphotographs on microscope slides dating from the mid 19th century, four by John Benjamin Dancer, please see the detailed description below concerning John Dancer. The images are all clear, the John Dancer labels intact but with repaired breaks to two of the slides, not effecting the images. Each slide measures 73 x 25mm (3" x 1"). The details are as follows:
 
The Arctic Council Discussing the Plan of Search for Sir John Franklin, thirteen portraits. Painted by Stephen Pearce, and engraved by James Scott. The figures shown are listed as Captain Sir G. Back, Rear Admiral Sir W. Edward, Parry, Captain E. J,. Bird, Captain Sir J. C. Ross, Rear Admiral Sir F. Beaufort, J. Barrow Esq, Lieutenant Colonel Sabine, Captain W. A. B. Hamilton, Sir J. Richardson, Captain F. W. Beechey, Portraits of Sir J. Barrow, Captain J. Fitzjames and Sir John Franklin. 
Sir John Franklin (1786 – 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, during the Coppermine expedition of 1819 and the Mackenzie River expedition of 1825, and served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837 to 1843. During his third and final expedition, an attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1845, Franklin's ships became icebound off King William Island in what is now Nunavut, where he died in June 1847. The icebound ships were abandoned ten months later, and the entire crew died from causes such as starvation, hypothermia, and scurvy. Slide by John Benjamin Dancer.
 
Sturgeon's Tablet Kirkby Lonsdale Church Contains 755 letters, size of original 4 feet. 
William Sturgeon was a pioneer of electromagnetism and electric motors, the slide shows the plaque in Kirkby Lonsdale Church commemorating his significant contributions, including the invention of the first practical electromagnet and the commutator. His gravestone in Bury, Greater Manchester identifies him as "The Electrician". Slide by John Benjamin Dancer.
Photograph of the celebrated Blarney Castle Ireland, portraits Adrl Moorson, Latimer Clark, Edwin Clark, Frank Foster, G. P. Bidder, Mr Hemmingway, Captain Claxton RN, C. H. Wild, Jos Locke MP, A. Ross, J. K. Brunel, Robert Stephenson, centre figure.  Slide by John Benjamin Dancer.
 
Conference of Engineers at the Menai Straits, previous to floating one of the Tubes of the Brittannia Bridge. Portraits Admiral Moorson, Latimer Clark, Edwin Clark, Frank Foster, G. P. Bidder, Mr Hemmingway, Captain Claxton RN, C. H. Wild, Jos Locke MP, A. Ross, J. K. Brunel, Robert Stephenson, centre figure. Slide by John Benjamin Dancer.
 
Gladstone. William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British statesman, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 12 years, spread over four non-consecutive terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. Slide engraved “Gladstone” and initialled “KM”.
 
John Benjamin Dancer (1812-1887) was a Manchester optician and instrument maker, who pioneered the making of microphotographs mounted on slides for viewing through the microscope. His method was to create a glass negative of the photograph to be reduced and to place it in a lantern illuminated by a flame. The image of the photograph was projected through a microscope objective mounted horizontally on to the sensitised collodion film supported on a glass sheet. Dancer speeded up production slightly by duplicating the contraption with two lanterns placed back to back with one illuminating flame in the space between the two lanterns, the whole assembly being covered over with a canvas tent to keep out the light. The exceedingly small piece of collodion film containing the positive microphotograph image was mounted in balsam beneath a cover glass on a standard 3 x 1 slide.