Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
Muybridge was born in Kingston in 1830, at a time when people were still experimenting with the idea of photography. He left the UK and set off for America at the age of 20. He initially worked as a bookseller but later became a photographer, for which he is best known. Muybridge began as a landscape photographer, capturing stunning views of cities and nature. However, he is most famous for his sequential photography of moving animals and humans. Muybridge also created one of the world’s first moving image projectors, the Zoopraxiscope. His pioneering work has not only influenced film, animation, and the visual arts but has also made a lasting impact on many other aspects of our culture.
After a long and successful career abroad, Muybridge returned to his hometown, Kingston, where he lived until he died in 1904. Muybridge gifted his extensive personal collection to Kingston Museum.
The Muybridge Collection
Kingston Museum houses one of the most prominent Muybridge collections in the world, recognised for its size and scope. This collection is uniquely connected to Muybridge himself, as he bequeathed it in 1904, the year the museum was founded. It embodies over thirty years of Muybridge’s work as a photographer and lecturer. Its representation of his lecturing career is particularly distinct and significant.
The museum’s Muybridge Collection comprises over 3,000 items, with the largest portion consisting of more than 2,200 lantern slides and glass plates that Muybridge used in his lectures. The original Zoopraxiscope and 70 glass discs (out of 73 surviving discs) serve as reminders of his pioneering work in early moving image projection. They also attest to Muybridge’s success as a lecturer. Other notable items in the collection include a rare copy of the mammoth-plate San Francisco Panorama (1878), two copies of The Attitudes of Animals in Motion (1881), Muybridge’s autobiographical scrapbook, and an ‘Author’s Edition’ portfolio of Animal Locomotion (1887).
In addition, the collection includes over 450 Animal Locomotion collotypes, alongside many other original publications, such as a set of 50 paper discs and a book, Descriptive Zoopraxography, which Muybridge produced for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The first edition copies of his last two books, Animals in Motion (1899) and The Human Figure in Motion (1901), are also part of the collection, together with various projection equipment, including a biunial lantern projector and a single-lens magic lantern projector.
Muybridge Exhibits
Kingston Museum has a permanent gallery dedicated to its Muybridge Collection. Arranged into six themes: Famous Lecturer, Muybridge in Kingston, Flying Horse, Animal Locomotion, Magnificent Views, and The Magic of Moving Images, the Muybridge Gallery showcases around 50 items from the museum’s extensive collection that reflect Muybridge’s life and work. While illustrating his diverse photographic achievements in landscapes and motion studies, the display highlights Muybridge’s lecturing career and his unique connection to Kingston, rooted in his residences in the town and his bequest to the museum. Some objects on display, such as the original Zoopraxiscope and a carrying case of discs, can only be seen at Kingston Museum.
The museum shop offers a variety of Muybridge items, including books, stationery, and many more. Prints of Muybridge’s images from the collection are also available on Art UK's online shop.
'Muybridge in Kingston' Website
‘Muybridge In Kingston’ website provides information about Muybridge’s life, work and legacy, preserved and presented at Kingston Museum and beyond. It also features the highlights and online catalogue of the museum’s Muybridge Collection.
Muybridge and the Time Travelling Camera
As part of a project called "Year of Muybridge" in 2020 we collaborated with Tim Wheatley animator of children's TV shows Peppa Pig, The Night Zookeeper and Footy Pups, to create Muybridge and the Time Travelling Camera, a short animated film suitable for all the family about Eadweard Muybridge!