On Aug. 31, 1897, Thomas Edison received a patent for the kinetographic camera, “a certain new and useful Improvement in Kinetoscopes,” the forerunner of the motion picture film projector. Edison and ...

Experimental test footage from Edison’s earliest motion picture work, capturing camera trials, exposure studies, and mechanical movement. Likely filmed by Edison staff in the early 1890s, it survives ...

The Photographic History Collection’s Early Motion Picture History Collection is one of the most complete assemblages of objects relating to the invention of the American cinema in any museum. The ...