Muybridge & Animal Locomotion

Photographer Eadweard Muybridge (April 9, 1830 - May 8, 1904), was an early innovator in the recording of movement. Muybridge used multiple cameras to record successive phases of movement and replicate motion and published the photo sequences in 1887 in his seminal work, “Animal Locomotion. An Electro-photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements. 1872-1885” (Philadelphia: Photogravure Company of New York, 1887), lccn.loc.gov/31004968. You can see many of the plates from this study here.

The horse skeleton photographs in this set are a small selection of the illustrations that appeared in his later work “The Attitudes of Animals in Motion: A Series of Photographs Illustrating the Consecutive Positions Assumed by Animals in Performing Various Movements; Executed at Palo Alto, California, in 1878 and 1879”, copyright by Eadweard J. Muybridge, 1881, lccn.loc.gov/10034163.

Finally, we’ve provided four zoopraxiscopes, an innovative optical toy designed by Mr. Muybridge. The images on a zoopraxiscope disk appear to move when spun, following the persistence of vision principle. To see more examples of this type of optical illusion, see the exhibit at www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr117.html.

Learn more:
* Animal Locomotion : From Antiquity to the 21st Century.

* Eadweard Muybridge: Birth of a Photographic Pioneer.

* Celebrating Edweard Muybridge: Documenting Movement and Creating Art.