Topics in Chronicling America - Early Cinema

Jump to: Sample Articles

Important Dates:

• 1882: E.J. Marey develops Chronophotographic camera, shoots 12 successive pictures, illustrated by birds in flight.
• 1889: George Eastman commercially sells his camera "Kodak" using celluloid film, that he invented; superior format to glass negatives.
• May 20, 1891: Edison holds first public exhibit of his Kinetoscope, a viewer. Same year he invents the Kinetograph camera.
• December 28, 1895: Lumièr brothers in France hold first public exhibition of with their Cinématographe. First camera to project to a large screen.
• April 1896: Edison releases own projection camera, Vitascope, using an improved version of Thomas Armat's Phantascope.
• 1902: Armat successfully sues Edison. Edison disallowed from having a monopoly on the motion picture industry.
• 1905: First "nickelodeon" opens; by 1908 there are over 5,000 in the United States.
• 1910: Funeral of King Edward VII shot in color.

Suggested Search Terms:

• [Try the following terms in combination, proximity, or as phrases using Search Pages in Chronicling America.] Moving Pictures, Motion Pictures, Muybridge, Chronophotographic, Kodak, Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, Mutoscope, Cinematographe, Vitascope, Thomas Edison, Nickelodeon

Sample Articles from Chronicling America:

• "All the Gaits of Horses," [Shown in Moving Pictures by Zoopraxiscope], New York Sun (New York, NY), 18 November 1882, Page 1, Image 1, Col. 5.
• "Photographing Flight," [Chronophotographic camera shows birds in flight], New York Tribune (New York, NY), 16 April 1882, Pge 9, Image 9, Col. 4.
• "Kodak Camera," [After inventing photographic film George Eastman makes it commercially available], New York Tribune (New York, NY), 28 April 1889, Page 28, Image 28, Col. 6.
• "The Kinetograph," Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, UT), 29 May 1891, Page 1, Image 1, Col. 5.
• "A Look into the Kinetoscope," Salt Lake Herald (Salt Lake City, UT), 3 September 1894, Page 1, Image 1, Col. 6.
• "Novelties in the Realms of Science, Literature, and Art," [Cinematographe verses Kinetoscope], San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 27 December 1896, Page 25, Image 25, Col. 1.
• "Edison's Latest," [Vitascope], Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), 19 April 1896, Page 16, Image 16, Col. 4.
• "A New Corporation," [Mutoscope], San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 19 November 1898, Page 9, Image 9, Col. 4.
• "Armat Company Wins its Suit Against Wizard Edison," Washington Times (Washington, DC), 18 December 1902, Page 1, Image 1, Col. 5.
• "Moving Pictures Interesting Item," [Longest film ever], Los Angeles Herald (Los Angeles, CA), 3 September 1905, Page 3, Image 83, Col. 1.
• "Yankee Business Ingenuity," [Story of the "Nickelodeon"], The Washington Herald (Washington, DC), 14 May 1907, Page 7, Image 7, Col. 1, Sect. 2.
• "After the 5 Cent Theaters," [Calls for censorship], The Sun (New York, NY), 6 July 1907, Page 4, Image 4, Col. 3.
• "Moving Picture War On," New-York Tribune (New York, NY), 26 February 1908, Page 5, Image 5, Col. 3.
• "This City has over 500 Moving Picture Shows," The Evening World (New York, NY), 16 January 1909, Final Results Edition, Page 9, Image 9, Col. 1.
• "Theater Fire in a Mexican Western Port," Hopkinsville Kentuckian (Hopkinsville, KY), 18 February 1909, Page 1, Image 1, Col. 1.
• "Colored Moving Pictures," The Sun (New York, NY), 21 March 1909, Third Section, Page 3, Image 35, Col. 7.