Eadweard Muybridge Collection, Selected Items

A total of 781 plates were created of his Animal Locomotion publication. This prospectus provides detailed information about the photographic process, equipment and staff. The catalog carefully records data about each photograph, including the subject, model, costume, type of movement, camera angles and time intervals.

This announcement describes how subscribers can order and select 100 plates from the 781 plates created by Muybridge as a part of the Animal Locomotion study. The bulk of this announcement provides a partial list of subscribers, including well-known individuals and institutions from around the United States and even Europe.

The cover and 110 pages of this volume again offer detailed information about the photographic process, equipment, and staff involved in the producing the Animal Locomotion plates. Descriptive Zoopraxography is particularly useful because of Muybridge’s discussion of the scientific and artistic knowledge gained from the Animal Locomotion plates and his description of the zoopraxiscope, a motion picture machine which he invented to project animated versions of the Animal Locomotion plates onto a wall.

• Letters written by Muybridge
• Letters written about Muybridge and the Animal Locomotion project

Used by Muybridge in the 1870s. Several of these were placed in a row, each triggered by the breaking of a string. Overall: L: 22″, w: 5.75″, h: 5.8″. Wooden box (7″ long, 5.75″ square) houses a sliding box (with removable glass plate) mounted on 22″ track by means of a brass screw and plate. Every piece of these custom-made cameras would match the corresponding camera.

2 views, of front and back. Partially opened to show sliding components.

Used to make copies of a positive or negative using transmitted light. The positive goes at one end, the negative in the middle (in the lateral aperture), and the lamp at the opposite end. Opening or closing the bellows resulted in enlarged or reduced images. No manufacturer’s label.

2 views, of front and back. Probably for lantern slides. It could fit the Copy Camera and could have been used to make lantern slides for Muybridge’s lectures on Animal Locomotion.

2 views, of front and back. For the Copy Camera.

For the Copy Camera. Manufacturer’s label: Anthony & Scovill.

2 views, of front and back. For the Copy Camera. The nesting feature allowed for the placement of any standard size plate on the plate holder.

2 views, of front and back.

3 views: front, back and angled. The label “Folmer and Schwing Division” indicates that this item dates from 1907-1917, when Folmer and Schwing was a division of Eastman Kodak.

3 views of the holder (with sliding insert partially out): both sides, and with the hinged side open, showing nested cropping masks.

2 views, of front and back.

Lens with leather caps. 2 views. Diameter: 2.75″, height: 2.25″. Goerz double-anastigmat. Series 3, no. 8, focus 19 in., no. 150968. U.S. patent no. 528155.

Lens holder, no. 9. Metal painted black. Diameter: 3.3″, height: 7.0″.

Pantograph Rapid Rectilinear, 31″ focus, 20×24. 8.5 in. high, 5.2 in. diameter.

Diameter: 4.8″, height: 7.5″. Label on box: “Carl Zeiss, Optische werksaette, Jena, serie 1C, foc 250”.

Diameter: 3.6″, height: 3.8″.

Two pieces.

2 views, front and back of example 1 (10 x 12 in.). Also see example 2 (7 x 9 in.) and example 3 (18.5 x 22.8 in.).

In the 19th century, making prints with an enlarger was difficult and time-consuming. The more common method of making prints was by contact between a negative and sensitized paper. Since the resulting print was the same size as the negative, these glass negatives were larger than the negatives used after the improvement of photo enlargers.

The glass plate negative (either collodion or gelatin dry plate) was placed on the cover glass of the printing frame, emulsion side up. Sensitized paper was placed on top, with its emulsion side down to be in contact with the emulsion. After the negative and the paper were then firmly pressed together, the printing frame was placed in the sun to develop. From time to time the photographer opened the larger of the two hinged doors on the back check on the progress of the exposure; when he was satisfied, he washed out the unexposed silver with a water bath and then “fixed” the print.

3 views. Note that one side piece is missing from this item.
During the 19th century retouching was an important part of the photography process because the existing photographic plate technology could not register anything for the red and yellow ranges of the light spectrum. Since these colors would be white on the negative and thus black on the print, the print would not be a fair representation of the subject, particularly of the shades of human skin tones.

Pencil, graphite, watercolor, paper mask and other materials were applied to the glass plate negative to compensate for the missing reds and oranges. To do this, the glass plate was held in place on the frosted glass panel of the retouching desk. Light from a lamp placed behind the desk was reflected by the mirror to the back of the negative. The cover with two black panels was used to cover the head of the retoucher and to prevent extraneous light coming to the negative.

Glass marked with rectangles and oval. 12.5 x 1.25 x 12.75 in.

2 views, of front and back. Another mounted lens can also be viewed.

Probably used for a projector. Diameter: 2.5″, height: 6.1″. Label: Bausch & Lomb, Rochester NY.