Van Guysling (George E.) (d.1946) Collection, ca. 1850-1957, 1855-1957

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Summary

Title:
George E. Van Guysling (d.1946) Collection, ca. 1850-1957
Dates:
1855-1957
Creators:
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Abstract:
Extent:
(Boxes: 1 legal, 2 letter, 1 ov, 2 ov folders)
Language:
Preferred citation:

George E. Van Guysling (d.1946) Collection, ca. 1850-1957. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Background

Scope and content:

Primarily an assortment of documents relating to the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company and the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company. There are items pertaining to incorporation matters for both companies, catalogs, and the related film industry. There are mutoscope cards and a scrapbook of press clippings, 1898-1900, with photo event coverage including the Second Boer War in South Africa. There is a continuous 15-foot band for a peep show. Other non-moving picture items in the collection include Abraham Lincoln prints, a Civil War-era wet collodian negative, Brady negatives and prints, a Millard Fillmore print (housed in the mc folder) and large-size tintypes. Circa 1850-1957, undated. Bulk is 1898-1926. See also P-26 for kinetoscope strip images and portraits of Van Guysling, his brother Archibald and Otis M. Gove.

Biographical / historical:

Van Guysling managed the New England office of American Mutoscope and Biograph in 1901. By 1904 he became General Manager of the New York office. Various sources cite the establishment of a Los Angeles branch in late 1905 or early 1906 whereby Van Guysling, his brother Archibald, and another associate, Otis M. Gove, ran the West coast operation. Their early film association in Los Angeles preceded the better-known work of the Selig Company, and the collection contains six photographs and a handbill for the little-known first moving pictures made in Los Angeles in 1906.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid created by Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County staff.
Date Prepared:
1855-1957
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on July 14, 2025, 2:54 p.m.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Research is by appointment only

Terms of access:

Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder

Preferred citation:

George E. Van Guysling (d.1946) Collection, ca. 1850-1957. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Location of this collection:
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007-4057, US
Contact:
(213) 763-3359
seavercenter@nhm.org
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