Collection Guide
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Guide to the Eadweard Muybridge Photograph Collection
PC0006
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Call Number: PC0006
Creator:
Muybridge, Eadweard, 1830-1904
Title: Eadweard Muybridge photograph collection
Dates: 1868-1929
Physical Description:
8.25 Linear feet
Summary: This collection includes original Muybridge glass plate negatives and prints, as well as modern day copy prints of his photographs.
Original materials, 1872-1880, include images of the Stanfords' residences in Sacramento and San Francisco, other unidentified
estates, and two printed cards from his horse in motion series, 1878. Images represented by copy prints include Canadian Pacific
Railway, Indians, San Francisco, Oakland, and several Central America photographs. Also included in the collection is a set
of glass slides, primarily of images included in this collection, probably assembled by Harry C. Peterson, former curator
of the Stanford Museum.
Language(s): The materials are inEnglish.
Repository:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064
Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu
Phone: (650) 725-1022
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc
Biographical/Historical Sketch
Eadweard Muybridge was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, England, in April 1830 as Edward James Muggeridge. He came to the United
States in 1851 and worked for two publishing companies on the east coast until 1855, when he moved to California and established
a book store in San Francisco. In 1860 he set off on an extensive journey east through the United States and on to Europe,
but was injured in a stagecoach accident in Texas. He spent some time in England recuperating and back in the States suing
the stage coach company, but not all of his activities between 1860 and 1866 are known.
In 1867 he returned to California and commenced his photography career, focusing for the next six years on California and
the Far West. He traveled in Central America and Panama during 1875 to 1876; and in 1876 and 1877 he completed his panorama
of San Francisco.
Muybridge worked closely with Senator Leland Stanford on experiments to record horses in motion, trying first to answer the
question of whether or not all four feet are off the ground during the trot. In 1873 he successfully captured that event in
Sacramento, using Leland Stanford's horse Occident as his subject. He made further photographs of Occident in 1877 and then
in 1878-1879 he set up a studio at Stanford's Palo Alto Stock Farm and conducted many photographic experiments of horses in
motion.
This collection includes original Muybridge glass plate negatives and prints, as well as modern day copy prints of his photographs.
Original materials, 1872-1880, include images of the Stanfords' residences in Sacramento and San Francisco, other unidentified
estates, and two printed cards from his horse in motion series, 1878. Images represented by copy prints include Canadian Pacific
Railway, Indians, San Francisco, Oakland, and several Central America photographs. Also included in the collection is a set
of glass slides, primarily of images included in this collection, probably assembled by Harry C. Peterson, former curator
of the Stanford Museum.
Muybridge, Eadweard, 1830-1904
Palo Alto Stock Farm (Stanford, Calif.)
Stanford, Leland, 1824-1893.
Albumen prints.
Glass plate negatives.
Palo Alto (Calif.) Stock Farm
Photonegatives
Photoprints.
Stanford residences--Sacramento.
Stanford residences--San Francisco.
Yosemite National Park (Calif.) --Photographs.