Eadweard Muybridge
Santa Clara County, Santa Clara County, California
Marker Inscription
Development of motion pictures. In commemoration of the motion picture research conducted in 1878 and 1879 by Eadweard Muybridge at the Palo Alto Stock Farm, now the site of Stanford University, this extensive photographic experiment portraying the attitudes of animals in motion was conceived by and executed under the direction of Leland Stanford. Consecutive instantaneous exposures were provided for by a battery of 24 cameras fitted with electro-shutters.
The Story
In 1878 and 1879, at Leland Stanford's Palo Alto Stock Farm — now the grounds of Stanford University — photographer Eadweard Muybridge solved a question that had eluded the eye: whether a galloping horse ever leaves the ground entirely. Using a battery of twenty-four cameras fitted with fast electric shutters, he captured animals in motion frame by frame. His sequential photographs laid crucial groundwork for the coming art of motion pictures.
Why it matters
Muybridge's experiments here helped launch the birth of motion-picture technology, an American breakthrough that would reshape entertainment and visual culture worldwide.
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Related people
- · Eadweard Muybridge
- · Leland Stanford
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
California Registered State Landmark No 834
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In 1878 and 1879, at Leland Stanford's Palo Alto Stock Farm, the photographer Eadweard Muybridge used banks of trip-wire cameras to freeze a galloping horse in motion — proving all four hooves leave the ground at once and producing the first true motion studies. Projected on his 'zoopraxiscope,' the sequences pointed directly toward the invention of motion pictures. The site is now part of Stanford University.
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