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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly

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Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I was visiting the

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Speaker 1: Presidio in San Francisco recently and I started really looking

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Speaker 1: at a statue that I have passed many times there

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Speaker 1: because I love San Francisco and go as often as

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Speaker 1: I can. And that statue is one depicting Edward Boybridge,

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Speaker 1: considered a pioneer of motion picture projection. And I thought, oh,

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Speaker 1: I should look him up. That's interesting and oh boy,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of story to his life. And then

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Speaker 1: I thought unexpected things. Well I did, and then I realized, wait,

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Speaker 1: I know this story, and I'll talk about why in

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Speaker 1: behind the Scenes because it's to me hilarious. The invention

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Speaker 1: that he's memorialized with in that statue is his zopraxiscope,

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Speaker 1: but he also innovated in fat biography. He had some

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Speaker 1: other inventions, and he was also the defendant in a

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Speaker 1: murder trial. Uh. He was heavily linked to Leland Stanford,

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Speaker 1: the founder of Stanford University. So in my book, that's

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Speaker 1: a story worth telling. Heads up, he also changed his

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Speaker 1: name quite a bit, so in the early parts of

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to use the name he was

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Speaker 1: going by at the time we're talking about. I hope

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Speaker 1: I caught them all because I think that kind of

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Speaker 1: shares the mercuriality of his persona throughout the year. Yeah. So.

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Speaker 1: Edward James Muggridge spelled m ugg r Idge was born

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Speaker 1: on April ninth, eighteen thirty, in Kingston upon Tims, Surrey, England.

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Speaker 1: His father was a merchant who primarily worked in coal

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Speaker 1: and grain sales. This made for a financially stable life

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Speaker 1: for the family. Even after his father died when Edward

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Speaker 1: was only thirteen, the family was still comfortable. Edward's mother

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Speaker 1: started running the family business and there was no interruption

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Speaker 1: of their income. As a young man, Edward moved into

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Speaker 1: London to work for the London Printing and Publishing Company,

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Speaker 1: and then when he was twenty one, he made his

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Speaker 1: first name change, although it's a pretty subtle one. He

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Speaker 1: changed his first name Edward ed Ward the way you

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Speaker 1: would often see it spelled, to Edward ea d W

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Speaker 1: EA r D, because he had concluded that it was

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Speaker 1: the version of his name closest to its original Anglo

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Speaker 1: Saxon form. I also read a number of things that

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Speaker 1: said he was naming himself after an Anglo Saxon king,

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Speaker 1: but I could never figure out which of the Anglo

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Speaker 1: Saxon Edwards that would have been. It does have a

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Speaker 1: very like Early English Old English Middle English kind of

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Speaker 1: vibe to it. Yes, he would have a BFF named

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Speaker 1: ethel Red without any Christion. Yeah. At the age of

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Speaker 1: twenty two, he moved to the United States and eventually

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Speaker 1: made his way to San Francisco, where he settled. San

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Speaker 1: Francisco was several years into the gold Rush at that time,

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Speaker 1: and it was a place where a lot of people

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Speaker 1: saw potential opportunity, and Edward first sought his fortune in

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Speaker 1: the book business. He set up a shop that sold books,

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Speaker 1: but also still worked for the London Printing and Publishing

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Speaker 1: Company as an agent. It actually been through that company

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Speaker 1: that he was able to travel to the United States

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Speaker 1: in the first place. It was in California that Edward

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Speaker 1: started toying with variations in his last name, shifting first

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Speaker 1: from Muggridge with an E in it to Muggridge without

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Speaker 1: that E between the double G and the R. Eventually

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Speaker 1: he moved on to Moigridge, which he used for quite

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Speaker 1: a while. That is the pronunciation of that first syllable

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Speaker 1: that I all was here in documentaries about him. But

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Speaker 1: I did hear an English person pronouncing it a little

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Speaker 1: bit more like my instead of moy, So that's another

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Speaker 1: I don't know if he fiddled with those pronunciations along

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Speaker 1: the way either, but in his first eight years in

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Speaker 1: the US, where there is some mystery about where he

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Speaker 1: was at various points in time before he got to

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Speaker 1: San Francisco. But once he landed in San Francisco, Edward

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Speaker 1: did very well for himself. His bookshop stayed really busy

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Speaker 1: and he made a really nice living. He also became acquainted,

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Speaker 1: sort of thanks to proximity with photography dagera typist R. H.

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Speaker 1: Vance had a studio right next to Edward's shop, and Moigridge,

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Speaker 1: because he was still using that variation of his name,

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Speaker 1: also became acquainted with a portrait photographer named Willem schu. Soon,

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Speaker 1: Edward had expanded the offerings in his shop to include

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Speaker 1: photographs that were sold alongside the books. In eighteen sixty,

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Speaker 1: he needed to travel to Europe on an acquisition trip.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to purchase notable antiquarian books for resale in

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Speaker 1: his shop. He couldn't just leave the shop closed and

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Speaker 1: unattended while he was away, though, so he asked his

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Speaker 1: brother Thomas, who had followed him to the US, to

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Speaker 1: handle things while he was gone. Yeah, he actually had

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Speaker 1: two brothers that followed him to the United States, and

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Speaker 1: there are some versions of the story that indicate that

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Speaker 1: they may have already been working in the shop, and

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Speaker 1: others that suggest that he was like, hey, now would

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Speaker 1: be a great time for you to do this, but

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Speaker 1: we don't know. But he had booked passage aboard a steamer,

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Speaker 1: the SS Golden Age, to take him to Europe for

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Speaker 1: this trip, but he missed his ship, and then he

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Speaker 1: had to make arrangements to travel by stage coach to

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Speaker 1: Saint Louis, where he planned to take a train to

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Speaker 1: the East Coast and then get travel from there to

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Speaker 1: Europe by sea. And the seat he managed to book

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Speaker 1: was with the Butterfield Overland Mail Company, which at the

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Speaker 1: time was contracted with mail offices throughout the US to

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Speaker 1: carry mail in bulk as is taking on passengers. But

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Speaker 1: part way into the journey there was an accident. The

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Speaker 1: coach was passing through northern Texas, and the driver lost

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Speaker 1: control when the horses for some reason started running. There

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Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily a reason. Horses can be unpredictable. The driver tried,

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Speaker 1: according to the news reports, to break but that did

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Speaker 1: not work. The stagecoach veered off the road and down

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Speaker 1: a mountain slope and it crashed into a treat One

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Speaker 1: of Edward's fellow passengers was killed, but Moigridge and the

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Speaker 1: rest of them sustained injuries, and in his case, he

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Speaker 1: had quite a serious head injury. His vision was seriously

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Speaker 1: affected and his hearing his other senses were affected as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about his accounts of what he was dealing

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Speaker 1: with a little bit later, but it sounded quite scary.

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Speaker 1: After several months of being treated at Fort Smith ark

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Speaker 1: and Saw, which is where he woke up after this accident,

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Speaker 1: Moigridge traveled to New York by stagecoach, which seems brave

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Speaker 1: to me after that accident to seek medical help from experts,

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Speaker 1: and there he was treated by the president of the

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Speaker 1: New York Academy of Medicine, doctor William Parker, and Parker

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Speaker 1: gave a fairly grave diagnosis that Edward was never going

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Speaker 1: to fully recover. But Moigridge was quite tenacious and he

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Speaker 1: decided to get a third opinion, this time from the

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Speaker 1: best doctors of Europe, and he really did get, what is,

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Speaker 1: at least on paper, the best one. His doctor in London,

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Speaker 1: where he next traveled, was Sir William Gull, who was

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Speaker 1: also Queen Victoria's personal physician, and while under Gull's care,

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Speaker 1: Moigridge lived in England for the next several years, possibly

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Speaker 1: as many as six. Making a long sea voyage with

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Speaker 1: a serious head injury in this era also very scary

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Speaker 1: to me. Yes. Uh, There's not a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: information about what his recovery in London was like. One

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Speaker 1: thing that is known is that after he had recovered somewhat,

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Speaker 1: he took a trip to New York to file suit

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Speaker 1: against Butterfield Overland Mail Company over that accident. He got

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Speaker 1: a cash settlement, but it was reportedly only a fourth

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Speaker 1: of the ten thousand dollars that he wanted. He clearly

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Speaker 1: was not idle. While he was convalescing, he filed inventions

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Speaker 1: with the British Patent Office. One was a plate printing

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Speaker 1: technique for books, and another was an apparatus for washing

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Speaker 1: clothes he was also making business deals from London and

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Speaker 1: investing in mining and banking ventures in the US and abroad.

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Speaker 1: Some biographers have come to the conclusion that the actual

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Speaker 1: medical part of his stay in England was actually pretty brief,

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Speaker 1: and that he just got busy with all these other

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Speaker 1: things and that kept him from returning to California. It's

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Speaker 1: also possible that he was purposely staying in Europe while

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Speaker 1: the US Civil War was playing out, and it's also

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Speaker 1: been proposed that the brain injury from the crash was

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Speaker 1: a contributing factor to his seemingly haphazard kind of wandering

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Speaker 1: approach to his life during this time. We'll talk a

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Speaker 1: little more about his personality changes after the accident in

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Speaker 1: a bit. By the time he returned to San Francisco

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty six, he had lost money on those

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Speaker 1: various investments he had been making while abroad, and he

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Speaker 1: had taken up photography. There are so many theories about

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Speaker 1: when he actually became interested in photography, not just as

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Speaker 1: something he was selling in the shop, but something he

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Speaker 1: was going to do himself. Some people think it was

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Speaker 1: the proximity of his bookshop to photographers that got him started.

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Speaker 1: Others actually believed that his doctor, Sir William Gull, may

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Speaker 1: have suggested it as part of his recuperation, and it's

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Speaker 1: also possible that he picked it up at any other time.

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Speaker 1: But when he got home to California, he reconnected with

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Speaker 1: another photographer and a friend of his that was Silas Sellick,

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Speaker 1: and Selik is also sometimes invoked as the person who

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Speaker 1: may have been the one to get Edward into photography.

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Speaker 1: Going back even before the stagecoach accident, Edward had also

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Speaker 1: changed his last name once again, this time to the

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Speaker 1: one he's most known by, Moybridge. Regardless of when his

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Speaker 1: interest in photography began, in eighteen sixty seven, he started

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Speaker 1: taking pictures that would lead him to just immense success,

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Speaker 1: and those were photos of Yosemite Valley. He opened a

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Speaker 1: new business, Helio's Flying Studio, which was the name of

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Speaker 1: his photography business, and that was another name that he assumed, Helios,

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Speaker 1: after the Greek word for the sun. This was the

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Speaker 1: name he used initially for his photographic endeavors. The Helios

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Speaker 1: Flying Studio wasn't a brick and mortar location. It was

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Speaker 1: a mobile photography carriage, which sounds cool. He could take

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Speaker 1: it out into the world and on photo adventures, set

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Speaker 1: up his equipment and capture shots, and then developed the

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Speaker 1: film in a dark room that he had assembled there

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Speaker 1: in the carriage. Which that mobility was really important because,

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Speaker 1: as our mention of Yosemite might indicate, his special interest

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Speaker 1: was landscape photography. It is a pretty cool thing. There

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Speaker 1: are some photos of some of his mobile setups where

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Speaker 1: he just has everything he might need at hand, and

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Speaker 1: it's kind of groovy. We will talk about his very

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Speaker 1: quick success as a photographer in just a moment, but

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Speaker 1: first we're going to pause for a sponsor break. Moybridge,

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Speaker 1: as Helios was almost instantly successful. When he sent one

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Speaker 1: of his early photos to the magazine Philadelphia Photographer, the

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Speaker 1: publication wanted it and requested his negatives. Philadelphia Photographer was

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Speaker 1: a prominent photography magazine at the time, and the feature

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Speaker 1: of his photo in it sort of instantly made Moybridge's career.

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Speaker 1: He was very savvy about marketing and was driven to

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Speaker 1: continue to deliver imagery unlike anything anyone else was capable of.

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Speaker 1: In some cases, this led him to take up dare

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Speaker 1: devil grade positions from which to photograph, including going to

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Speaker 1: the very edge of stone overhangs from cliffs, but in

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Speaker 1: doing so he was able to offer panoramic views of

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Speaker 1: Yosemite and other places that no one had even conceived

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Speaker 1: of before. And as he gained more fame and his

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Speaker 1: work was demanded at various galleries and in print form,

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Speaker 1: Moibridge wasn't working alone all the time. He often, as

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Speaker 1: his business grew, had assistance with him on his tracks

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Speaker 1: out into nature. That's why we have pictures of his

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Speaker 1: mobile setup to capture photos. Although reportedly none of these

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Speaker 1: assistants were ever willing to go out to the precarious

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Speaker 1: points that he was often photographing from. It was like,

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Speaker 1: we'll wait back here, you go get your shot. If

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Speaker 1: you have ever tried to take a photo of a

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Speaker 1: really sun drenched land escape, even with a modern camera,

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Speaker 1: you probably know that one of the biggest challenges is

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Speaker 1: not having the sky become completely blown out in the

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Speaker 1: Exposureleibridge also encountered this, and he invented an apparatus to

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Speaker 1: deal with it. He called it a sky shade because

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Speaker 1: it could be manipulated to cover the upper part of

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Speaker 1: the camera's lens so that glare and overexposure would not

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Speaker 1: rob his images of their detail. His use of the

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Speaker 1: sky shade was sort of a simple solve, but his

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Speaker 1: photos were way ahead of anything else on the market

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Speaker 1: at the time. It was not uncommon for landscape photographers

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Speaker 1: to process their photos layered with other photos, most frequently

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Speaker 1: to add skyscape and clouds for dramatic effect. Moybridge also

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Speaker 1: did this, and he created a collection of sky studies

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Speaker 1: that he could pull from. But although others did it,

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Speaker 1: few of them had the eye for it that Moybridge did,

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Speaker 1: and his are very dramatic and by his own design,

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Speaker 1: very artistic. His photos appeared in magazines and prints were

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Speaker 1: in really high demand for consumers to display in their homes.

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Speaker 1: For several years, his success and fame seemed on an

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Speaker 1: endless upward trajectory. Somewhere along the line, he dropped that

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Speaker 1: Helios name and just was going by Moybridge. In the

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Speaker 1: early eighteen seventies, Moybridge had two people enter his life,

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Speaker 1: each of whom would impact it significantly, but in very

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Speaker 1: different ways. The first person that changed the course of

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Speaker 1: his life was Flora Stone. The two had met at

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Speaker 1: a gallery where Flora was working as a photo retoucher.

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Speaker 1: She was much younger than Moybridge, and she was already

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Speaker 1: married when the two of them met. Her husband, Lucia Stone,

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00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:52,480
Speaker 1: was by all accounts unkind to her at best, and

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Speaker 1: Edward kind of stepped into help. He helped Flora get

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Speaker 1: a divorce on the grounds of cruelty. So her first marriage,

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Speaker 1: which she had gotten into when she was just seventeen,

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Speaker 1: ended in late eighteen seventy, and then on May twentieth,

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, Flora and Edward were married. She was

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Speaker 1: twenty one at the time and he was forty. And

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Speaker 1: Flora was very pretty. She was vivacious, She loved to

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Speaker 1: go out and socialize, and Edward was not terribly interested

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Speaker 1: in things like going to the theater and socializing, so

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Speaker 1: they seemed like kind of an odd match, but according

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Speaker 1: to his friends, he truly loved her. The other person

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Speaker 1: was Leland Stanford born Amasa Leland Stanford in New York

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Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty four. Stanford had become one of the

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Speaker 1: most powerful men in California. As a young man, Stanford

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Speaker 1: had gone into law and had a practice in Wisconsin,

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Speaker 1: but then in eighteen fifty two he moved to Sacramento, California,

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Speaker 1: to capitalize on the growing population there and its demand

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Speaker 1: for mining supplies and various necessities. Yeah, he was a

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Speaker 1: merchant for a while and he did very well for himself,

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Speaker 1: and his success enabled him to also become involved in

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Speaker 1: the railroad industry. He became president of the Central Pacific

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Speaker 1: Railroad when it formed in eighteen sixty one, and he

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Speaker 1: was a lynchpin in the expansion of rail lines throughout

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Speaker 1: California for several decades. He also made a move into politics,

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Speaker 1: initially at the local level and then kind of moving

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Speaker 1: up the ladder until he became Governor of California in

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. In eighteen eighty five, he would found

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Speaker 1: Stanford University. In the two thousand and three book River

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Speaker 1: of Shadows, author Rebecca Soulnett describes him this way, this

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00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,160
Speaker 1: is kind of a snarky way to describe someone's appearance,

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Speaker 1: but it did tickle me a bit, And knowing that

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Speaker 1: Leland Stanford profited off a lot of people's work, I

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00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,160
Speaker 1: feel like it's kind of funny, she wrote. Quote. Stanford

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00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:50,600
Speaker 1: is something of an enigma. As a young man, he

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00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:53,360
Speaker 1: had the smoldering good looks of a stage villain, but

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Speaker 1: as he became stouter, he came to look like a

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Speaker 1: badly taxidermised badger, smart enough to become the seventh riches

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Speaker 1: man in the United States. He was often regarded as

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Speaker 1: slow and doltish by his colleagues, so Stanford could easily

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00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: be his own episode. But in terms of why he

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00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:16,359
Speaker 1: is germane to Moybridge's story, Leland Stanford was interested in horses,

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00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,520
Speaker 1: but the first meeting between these two men had nothing

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00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:24,040
Speaker 1: to do with horses. Moybridge, who was already famous, was

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00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:28,840
Speaker 1: hired in eighteen seventy two to photograph Stanford's Sacramento home.

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Speaker 1: That project went well enough that Stanford telegraphed with another project.

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Speaker 1: He asked, would Moybridge come back to Sacramento and take

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00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,560
Speaker 1: photos of Stanford's horse occident while he was running at

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00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:47,440
Speaker 1: various gates, and Moybridge agreed. So. In truth, Stanford wanted

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00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:51,040
Speaker 1: a very specific photo, and he thought that Moybridge was

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00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:54,159
Speaker 1: the man who could deliver it. What he wanted was

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00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,160
Speaker 1: an image that captured the moment during a horse's gait

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00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:00,320
Speaker 1: when none of the animal's legs touched the ground. Owned

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00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:03,919
Speaker 1: at the time, Stanford believed that this was part of

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00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:06,320
Speaker 1: a horse's movement cycle, but he was a little bit

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00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,200
Speaker 1: of an outlier. There's a lot of debate about this,

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00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:11,960
Speaker 1: and most people thought that the horse always had at

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00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:16,280
Speaker 1: least one limb touching the earth. The human eye could

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00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,480
Speaker 1: not conclusively perceive this motion because of its speed, so

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00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:24,400
Speaker 1: agreement on the matter was going to require imagery. Moybridge

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00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 1: once again traveled north to Sacramento to see Stanford, and

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00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:32,199
Speaker 1: he took a lot of photos of occident. Unfortunately, we

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00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:35,320
Speaker 1: don't have the first photos of accident that Edward took,

302
00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:37,920
Speaker 1: although we do have something that he took several years later.

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00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:41,680
Speaker 1: They were not meant to be published, although they were

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00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:45,000
Speaker 1: written about in an article in the San Francisco Examiner,

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00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:49,400
Speaker 1: which was then reprinted throughout the United States. It read,

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00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:53,200
Speaker 1: in part, quote, some time ago Governor Stanford, the owner

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00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,199
Speaker 1: of the horse occident, desired to have a photograph of

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00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:59,720
Speaker 1: the animal taken while said animal was going at full speed.

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00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 1: This article continued with saying that Weybridge quote procured all

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Speaker 1: the sheets to be had in the stable, and with

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00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:13,200
Speaker 1: these made a reflecting background over this occident was trained

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00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:17,520
Speaker 1: to trot. The great difficulty was to transfix an impression

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Speaker 1: while the horse was moving at a rate of thirty

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00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,520
Speaker 1: eight feet to the second. The article then notes that

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00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:27,000
Speaker 1: the first day of attempts was fruitless. The second day

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00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:30,199
Speaker 1: Moybridge captured a shadow, but the third day he quote

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00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 1: contrived to have two boards clap past each other by

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00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:37,600
Speaker 1: touching a spring, and in doing so leaven eighth of

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00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,600
Speaker 1: an inch opening for the five hundredth part of a

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00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:44,159
Speaker 1: second as the horse passed, and by an arrangement of

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00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:48,840
Speaker 1: double lenses crossed, secured a negative that shows occident in

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00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:53,639
Speaker 1: full motion a perfect likeness of the horse. This is

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00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:58,760
Speaker 1: probably the most wonderful success in photographing ever yet achieved,

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00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,600
Speaker 1: and the artist is proud out of his discovery, as

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00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:06,840
Speaker 1: the governor is of the picture taken. So a thrilling achievement.

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00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,600
Speaker 1: It seemed that Moybridge was poised to really create kind

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00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:14,120
Speaker 1: of a completely new branch of photography in figuring out

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00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 1: how to capture movement, and rapid movement at that. But

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00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:22,320
Speaker 1: as this project was underway, Moybridge's fame turned to infamy

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Speaker 1: when he was charged with murder. We'll explain how that

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00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:27,879
Speaker 1: came to be after we pause and hear from the

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00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:30,639
Speaker 1: sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.

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Speaker 1: We have to return to the subject of Flora, Moybridge's wife.

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00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 1: So because of his work, Edward traveled a lot, and

335
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:50,399
Speaker 1: it seems that in his absence, Flora turned to another

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00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,080
Speaker 1: person to escort her out on social engagements, and that

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00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,879
Speaker 1: man was Harry Larkins, who was a drama critic. Harry

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00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,480
Speaker 1: Larkins also wild story of his Maybe one day we'll

339
00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:04,600
Speaker 1: do a follow up where we talk about him. Initially,

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00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,200
Speaker 1: this whole arrangement may have actually been okay with Moybridge.

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00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:10,359
Speaker 1: As we said earlier, he didn't want to go to

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00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:12,439
Speaker 1: the theater and he didn't want to go out and socialize,

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00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,679
Speaker 1: so this may have seemed like great, she's got a

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00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 1: friend to handle it. But over time he grew really

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00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,760
Speaker 1: suspicious of Harry and Harry's intentions toward Flora, and he

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00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:24,919
Speaker 1: kind of dramatically and a little bit threateningly told the

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00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 1: critic to stay away from her. In late eighteen seventy three,

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00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 1: Flora and Edward had learned that they were expecting a child.

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Speaker 1: There had been two previous pregnancies that had not gone well,

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Speaker 1: and both of those babies had been still born, but

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00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:43,160
Speaker 1: the third time everything went fine. They had a son

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00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:47,399
Speaker 1: born on April fifteenth of the following year. They named

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Speaker 1: him Florado Heluis Moybridge. Several months after this baby was born,

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00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 1: in October of eighteen seventy four, Moybridge went to the

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Speaker 1: home of the midwife who had delivered the baby, named

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00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,720
Speaker 1: Susan Smith, because she had not yet been paid and

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00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:07,159
Speaker 1: he intended to give her that payment. So when he

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00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,919
Speaker 1: got to Smith's home, he saw a photograph of his

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00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,440
Speaker 1: infant son that he had not seen before, and when

360
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:16,080
Speaker 1: he asked her where it came from, Smith stated that

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00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: Flora had the portrait of the child made at another

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00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 1: photographer right as a retoucher, she was familiar with a

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00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 1: lot of photo studios in the city. And then Smith

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00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 1: said that Flora had sent the midwife a copy of

365
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:30,919
Speaker 1: that photo. When Moybridge picked up the photo to inspect it,

366
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,760
Speaker 1: he turned it over and on the back, in his

367
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 1: wife's handwriting were the words little Harry. According to Smith's account,

368
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:43,240
Speaker 1: after having seen that Moybridge looked like a madman, he

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00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 1: became very angry. He demanded that the midwife tell him

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00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:50,280
Speaker 1: everything she knew, and she did, later saying that she

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00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,520
Speaker 1: feared violence if she did not. There was one account

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00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 1: I read that said that she demanded money for this information,

373
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,720
Speaker 1: but her account ounce that she gave when things got legal,

374
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 1: did not indicate that at all. So she told Moybridge

375
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,640
Speaker 1: that Larry was the father and that she actually had

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00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,680
Speaker 1: love letters between Larry and Flora to prove it, because

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00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,800
Speaker 1: she had been helping the two of them by running

378
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:20,200
Speaker 1: communications back and forth between them. The morning after this revelation,

379
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,000
Speaker 1: Edward met with a business associate to settle some outstanding debts,

380
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:27,639
Speaker 1: and then he started a journey. First he took a

381
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: ferry through San Francisco and San Pablo Bays to Vallejo, California.

382
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 1: Then he got on a train and went roughly forty

383
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,919
Speaker 1: miles north to Calistoga, which is where Harry had moved

384
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:42,160
Speaker 1: after Moybridge had told him to stay away from Flora.

385
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 1: Moybridge asked after Larkins in Calistoga and found out he

386
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 1: was staying on a ranch about eight miles out of town.

387
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,840
Speaker 1: So he got a horse and buggy and he went there.

388
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 1: When he arrived at the ranch, Moybridge asked for Larkins,

389
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:57,920
Speaker 1: and once he had the man in front of him,

390
00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,080
Speaker 1: he reportedly stated, this this is the reply to the

391
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 1: letter you sent my wife, and he shot Harry Larkins

392
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 1: at point blank range in the heart with a sick shooter.

393
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: Larkins dropped to the floor dead after taking a few

394
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: steps away from Weybridge. This trial was fascinating. It lasted

395
00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 1: for only three days. Moybridge's defense team actually took an

396
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: approach that he did not agree with. The opening speech

397
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 1: began with quote, we claim a verdict both on the

398
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 1: ground of justifiable homicide and insanity. We shall prove that

399
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,360
Speaker 1: years ago the prisoner was thrown from a stage, receiving

400
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 1: a concussion of the brain, which turned his hair from

401
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: black to gray in three days and has never been

402
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,640
Speaker 1: the same since. Moybridge didn't believe that insanity was at

403
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,920
Speaker 1: issue and played no part in his decision making process.

404
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: He'd been very calm and deliberate in his decision to

405
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 1: kill Larkins and believed that it was his right as

406
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: a husband to do so. After he shot Harry, he

407
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,679
Speaker 1: was easily taken into custody and disarmed, and he was

408
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:06,840
Speaker 1: so calm throughout his booking and charging. At no point

409
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: was there any effort to try to claim that Moybridge

410
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:12,959
Speaker 1: had not killed Larkins. Everybody knew that he had done it.

411
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,880
Speaker 1: Weybridge's defense team used the very thing that had made

412
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: him famous to convey that he was mentally unusual, prone

413
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 1: to impulse, and possibly insane, kind of playing into this

414
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 1: mad genius trope. Those daring positions he would take to

415
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 1: get his incredible Yosemite vista shots were invoked as evidence

416
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,640
Speaker 1: that this was not a person most people would consider

417
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 1: sane or stable. Moybridge did testify on his own behalf,

418
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,679
Speaker 1: although he did so on the condition that he be

419
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 1: asked no questions about the murder, and he said that

420
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,360
Speaker 1: he would only talk about the eighteen sixty stagecoach accident.

421
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: When it came to discussing the crash, Weybridge stated in

422
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 1: testimony that he himself did not remember it. He stated quote,

423
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 1: I left Californi for a European tour some years ago.

424
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:06,119
Speaker 1: In July eighteen sixty. I recollect taking supper at a

425
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 1: stage house on the road. We then got on board

426
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,080
Speaker 1: the stage, which was drawn by six wild Mustang horses.

427
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 1: That is the last I recollect of that. Nine days

428
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,320
Speaker 1: after that, I found myself at Fort Smith, one hundred

429
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,359
Speaker 1: and fifty miles distant, lying in bed. There was a

430
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,879
Speaker 1: small wound on the top of my head. When I recovered,

431
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 1: each eye formed an individual impression, so that looking at you,

432
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: for instance, I could see another man sitting by your side.

433
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,199
Speaker 1: I had no taste nor smell, and was very deaf.

434
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 1: These symptoms continued in an acute form for probably three months.

435
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 1: I was under medical treatment for over a year, and

436
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: though he didn't personally remember the accident, he relayed what

437
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: had happened as told to him by another person who

438
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: was involved. Quote. A fellow passenger told me after I

439
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 1: had recovered consciousness that after leaving the station, we had

440
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,679
Speaker 1: traveled for probably half an hour. We were then just

441
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:07,439
Speaker 1: entering the Texas Cross timbers. The mustangs ran away the

442
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 1: driver was unable to control them. Just as we were

443
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: getting to the timbers. I remarked that the best plan

444
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:15,400
Speaker 1: would be for us to get out of the back

445
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 1: of the stage, because I saw that an accident would

446
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 1: take place. He told me that I took out my

447
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: knife to cut the canvas back of the stage and

448
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 1: was preparing to leave when the stage ran against either

449
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,399
Speaker 1: a rock or a stump and threw me out against

450
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: my head. Moybridge was acquitted not because the jury didn't

451
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:37,800
Speaker 1: think he did it, but because they determined that the

452
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: murder was justified. The jury's verdict in this case is

453
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 1: its own unique situation because the jury basically completely ignored

454
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 1: the instructions of the judge. They had been told that

455
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: they had four options. They could find Boybridge guilty in

456
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 1: the first degree with either a death penalty or life imprisonment.

457
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,880
Speaker 1: Those are two separate options. They could find him not guilty,

458
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 1: or they could find him not guilty by reason of insanity.

459
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 1: The judge also told them that adultery was not a

460
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: justification and should not be considered in their deliberation. It

461
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,120
Speaker 1: took several votes for the jury to come to unanimity

462
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 1: and think. It took him a little over a day.

463
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,360
Speaker 1: They had decided the Moybridge was not insane, but they

464
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 1: also could not put out of their consideration the adultery issue,

465
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 1: even though they had been expressly told not to factor

466
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: it in, so they returned a verdict of not guilty.

467
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: According to a newspaper report covering the trial, quote, they

468
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: say that if their verdict was not in accord with

469
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: the law of the books, it is within the law

470
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:49,640
Speaker 1: of human nature that in short, under similar circumstances, they

471
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: would have done as Moybridge did, and they could not

472
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: conscientiously punish him for doing what they would have done themselves. Okay,

473
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: I stopped what I was doing when I was reading

474
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: through this for the first time and sent Holly a

475
00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: message saying I was not expecting the jury to just

476
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: find that that guy needed killin. Yeah, Moybridge's reaction to

477
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: this verdict sounds kind of scary. He nearly fainted. He

478
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: reportedly not rocked in his chair and made movements that

479
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: seemed like convulsions. He had been completely certain that he

480
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: would be found guilty, but even after he recovered from

481
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 1: this and was an acquitted man, he got out of town.

482
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,880
Speaker 1: He had already planned a trip abroad before the murder

483
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: and the trial. Moybridge had been given a photography job

484
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: with Leland's company, Union Pacific Railroad. He had to travel

485
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: through Mexico and Central America and take photos that could

486
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: be used for the railroad's publicity campaigns, and then he

487
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: also took photos for his own art business. Of course,

488
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: during all of this, Moybridge and Flora had divorced, but

489
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: she did not have much of a life after the incident.

490
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: She had a stroke in the summer of eighteen seventy five,

491
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 1: and she died two weeks later. As for the baby, Florado,

492
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Examiner stated, quote, her babe is with

493
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: a French family at the Mission who have kindly cared

494
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,280
Speaker 1: for it during the illness of its mother and will

495
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: it is believed adopted, but other accounts indicate that the

496
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: child was actually moved to an orphanage. In eighteen seventy seven,

497
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:27,720
Speaker 1: Moybridge was back in California and he got back to

498
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 1: work on the original horse project that had brought him

499
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 1: together with Stanford. It was sort of like that whole

500
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: murder and trial had never happened. He was able to

501
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: pick up his life without any real fallout. Leland Stanford

502
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: had purchased a property in Palo Alto where they once

503
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 1: again photographed occident running. This time, Moybridge worked out a

504
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: way to solve the shutter speed problem that he had

505
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: in the early days of this assignment. He used a

506
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: dozen cameras at once, and each of them let him

507
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: take photos at an exposure of a thousandth of a second.

508
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: The setup for this series of photos was kind of incredible.

509
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 1: Moybridge had set the cameras up on one side of

510
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: the area where occident would run, and then he rigged

511
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 1: a tripwire to each camera. These trip wires were run

512
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: across this sort of it's not really a track, but

513
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: we'll call with that, across the running area, and while

514
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: they were not substantial enough to pose any impediment to

515
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 1: the horse, they were able to trigger the shutters on

516
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: the cameras, so Moybridge could capture shot after shot on

517
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: different cameras as the horse made its run. And he

518
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 1: eventually patented this setup and he got the shot, by

519
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: which we mean he got that long sought after image

520
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: of a horse midair with no legs touching the ground.

521
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 1: Accounts of the photo were published in papers around the

522
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: country and abroad, with a statement that they had been

523
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: retouched but in no way altered the image, just quote

524
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: for the purpose of giving a better effect of the details.

525
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 1: But this was still a time when most newspapers could

526
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 1: not publish photographs. Most write ups about the photo did

527
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 1: not include photos, and the images that did run in

528
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: articles about the accomplishment were actually line art that had

529
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: been traced from the photos. Moybridge had become really kind

530
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 1: of obsessed with this new method of photographing motion though,

531
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:24,200
Speaker 1: so he had several more horse photography sessions, using other

532
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: horses from Stanford Stables, and also eventually using two dozen

533
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: cameras instead of twelve to really improve the process, and

534
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,000
Speaker 1: then he also started photographing other animals and even people

535
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: in this way. To bring his progressive motion photos to

536
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:42,400
Speaker 1: the public, Moybridge went on tour and to help show

537
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 1: his photos, he invented a device called a zoa praxis scope.

538
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 1: This was a circular glass plate device that had a

539
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: series of photos around the edge of the circle in sequence.

540
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: When the light was put behind the glass to project

541
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:00,800
Speaker 1: it onto a wall or a screen, the glass would

542
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: spin and you could watch the subject of the photos

543
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 1: in motion. One of the problems of the zoopraxyscope was

544
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 1: that Weybridge couldn't use the photos he wanted to display

545
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 1: as he had originally taken them. If he did, the

546
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 1: image when it was projected would look squished, so it

547
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 1: appeared taller and narrower than the actual subject he had captured,

548
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 1: and he wanted it to look like his picture, so

549
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: he worked out this kind of cool setup that if

550
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 1: he tilted the prints of his photos at an angle

551
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 1: and curved the upper corners inward, and then rephotographed those photos.

552
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 1: When he projected them, the subjects retained their real life proportions.

553
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 1: Because the zoopraxyscope used a single rotating disc, it created

554
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: a single repeating loop of action, so it wasn't as

555
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 1: though you could tell a narrative story with it, But

556
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: still the zoopraxiscope was a marvel. Moibridge published a book

557
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,240
Speaker 1: of his motion photos in eighteen eighty one titled The

558
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 1: Attitudes Animals in Motion, and he promoted it by going

559
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 1: on tour again, this time to Europe. But while he

560
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:11,040
Speaker 1: was abroad he was professionally embarrassed by Leland Stanford when

561
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,680
Speaker 1: he discovered that Stanford's friend J. D. B. Stillman, who

562
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: was a doctor, had published a book about animal motion

563
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 1: using tracings of his photographs. Stillman had not credited him

564
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,600
Speaker 1: for taking the photos. Moybridge had been preparing a paper

565
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 1: on the same topic for the Royal Society of London,

566
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:36,120
Speaker 1: and the society accused him of plagiarizing Stillman's work. Moybridge

567
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 1: sued Leland Stanford when he got back to the US,

568
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,840
Speaker 1: but he lost. The photographer still had more success ahead

569
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,400
Speaker 1: of him without Stanford, though, because of the success of

570
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: Moybridge's lectures with the Zoe praxiscope, he was able to

571
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:52,840
Speaker 1: strike a deal with the University of Pennsylvania so the

572
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: school would fund his work creating photographic studies of motion.

573
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,399
Speaker 1: Over the next nearly two decades, Moybridge was was able

574
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: to take thousands and thousands of photographs seen, the number

575
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: estimated at twenty thousand, and that culminated in the publication

576
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:11,759
Speaker 1: of a portfolio in eighteen eighty seven titled Animal Locomotion

577
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 1: and electro Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements,

578
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,879
Speaker 1: as well as two more books in eighteen ninety nine

579
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh two. Those books were Animals in Motion

580
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 1: and The Human Figure in Motion. Many of the photographs

581
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 1: of humans in motion might elicit some giggles because a

582
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,440
Speaker 1: lot of them are nude series featuring the subjects doing

583
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,320
Speaker 1: very normal, everyday things like running or playing tennis. Honestly,

584
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:40,359
Speaker 1: some of them feel like you're watching a very old

585
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:44,520
Speaker 1: Benny hillskit. But they offered the scientific community a lot

586
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:48,760
Speaker 1: of information about the way human bodies move, and artists

587
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:52,279
Speaker 1: still use some of these photos today as reference when

588
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 1: drawing or painting people in motion. Moibridge had also presented

589
00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 1: the Zoa Praxyscope at the eighteen ninety three Colombia Exposition

590
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: in Chicago, along with a lecture about the mechanics of

591
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 1: animal motion. By the time he published those later books,

592
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 1: Moybridge had finished his work with the University of Pennsylvania

593
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 1: and had continued to travel and take photos and lecture

594
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: and give demonstrations. He had become famous and sparked the

595
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 1: imaginations of countless creators, really serving as one of the

596
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:28,200
Speaker 1: early pioneers of the film industry. Yeah. I can't state

597
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 1: strongly enough how much his little spinning discs made people

598
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: realize that you could capture and replay for an audience motion.

599
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 1: It was quite thrilling for a lot of people, and

600
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: very quickly other people started building on that idea. In

601
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 1: the first years of the twentieth century, Moybridge retired. He

602
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,319
Speaker 1: returned to Kingston upon Thames, and he died there on

603
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:54,040
Speaker 1: May eighth, nineteen oh four, at the home of his sister,

604
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: after a long struggle with cancer. Boy, he did kind

605
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:00,399
Speaker 1: of change the world, though, even if he didn't get

606
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:02,960
Speaker 1: to live long enough to see it. Yeah, I mean,

607
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,319
Speaker 1: he'd lived long enough to enjoy fame and do some

608
00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 1: other wild things. But I think motion pictures would have

609
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,240
Speaker 1: really blown his mind. I had a very silly sentence

610
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 1: if he lived long enough to shoot somebody and be

611
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,919
Speaker 1: acquitted for it. We were talking about that on Behind

612
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:21,839
Speaker 1: the Scenes. I have a brief listener mail which I love,

613
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 1: and it's a person that thinks I wouldn't read this

614
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: listener mail, and I will, and I will tell you

615
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 1: why I want to do it. It's short. This is from

616
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: our listener nanny, who writes, Hi, ladies, have you ever

617
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 1: opened your podcast app and been so excited to see

618
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:35,719
Speaker 1: the title of an episode that you did a little

619
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:38,479
Speaker 1: happy dance? Because I just did. I haven't even listened

620
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 1: to it yet, but I had to write to tell

621
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:42,480
Speaker 1: you how excited I was to see an episode on

622
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 1: sewing patterns, and not just one, a two parter. I

623
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:48,879
Speaker 1: can't wait to get to listening. I'm attaching my obligatory

624
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:52,640
Speaker 1: pet tax my ten year old rescue Roddy Mulu. Thank

625
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,960
Speaker 1: you for all the amazing knowledge you share. One This

626
00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:00,160
Speaker 1: roth Wiler is so cute now, Oh my goodness, I'm

627
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: one of those people that it breaks my heart that

628
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 1: Rotwilers have a reputation for being dangerous because they are,

629
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 1: by nature the biggest cuddle bugs on the planet. So

630
00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:12,360
Speaker 1: if you see one that is like that, they have

631
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:14,919
Speaker 1: been mistreated in a way that makes them that way,

632
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: and it makes me very frustrated. This baby looks like

633
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: it is very loved and goofy, and I love all

634
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: of that about it. Also, I just wanted to read

635
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:25,280
Speaker 1: this because it was a little moment of phew, because

636
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 1: I know I want to talk about sewing patterns all

637
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 1: the long day, but as I was prepping that episode,

638
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,920
Speaker 1: I was like, I hope anybody else cares. So thank you, Nanny.

639
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: Even if it's just you and me, I feel better.

640
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,359
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us and share

641
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: your thoughts about this or any other episode, and you know,

642
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:47,800
Speaker 1: send us those cute animal pictures, we still love them.

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Speaker 1: You can do that at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

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Speaker 1: You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio

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Speaker 1: app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff

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Speaker 1: you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,