Levison Motion Picture Camera: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Wallace Goold Levison's experimental 1887 motion picture camera. Goold designed the camera to take photographs at high speed - 3 to 12 exposures per second - on dry plates affixed to a rotating poygonal wheel. The wheel turned intermittently by the action of a drunken worm and pinion mechanism, and an electromagnet operated the camera's shutter. Goold first used the camera on October 7, 1887, when he filmed Eddie Pierce jumping - probably in the backyard of his Brooklyn home - according to notes made by A. J. Olmstead. This catalog number includes the camera, three glass plate negatives, and six prints made on 10-07-1887 showing Eddie Pierce (or possibly Victor Grimwood) jumping.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: Motion Picture Camera
• Physical Description: handmade (overall production method/technique)
• Measurements: overall: 17 in x 25 1/4 in x 9 1/2 in; 43.18 cm x 64.135 cm x 24.13 cm
• place made: United States: New York, Brooklyn
• ID Number: PG.003741
• catalog number: 3741
• accession number: 71834
• catalog number: 3741.1
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.