Early Cinema Gateway
Pre-Cinema
- Adventures in Cybersound
A huge collection of biographical information on inventors of all kinds, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Thomas Edison, with some emphasis on cinema's inventors and pioneers, such as Birt Acres, Robert Paul, W.K-L. Dickson, Georges Demeny, Eadweard Muybridge and Urban's associate G.A. Smith. All gathered together by Dr Russell Naughton, with photographs and links to the sources of information. The site also features Magic Machines, a timeline history of the moving image "from Antiquity to 1900". - Archivio del Movemento
Wide selection of pre-cinema and early cinema animations (viewable with Windows Media Player), including titles by Ottomar Anschutz, Albert Londe, Eadweard Muybridge, E-J. Marey, Lucien Bull, Georges Demeny, the Lumieres, Skladanowskys and Edison. Text in Italian. - The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture
The late Bill Douglas, filmmaker and enthusiast for early and pre-cinema in all its many manifestiations, amassed a vast collection of books and artefacts. After his death the collection was donated by his partner Peter Jewell to the University of Exeter, which has now set up the Bill Douglas Centre, with the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Collection as its centrepiece. The site features examples from the collection, including magic lantern slides, panoramas, Chapliniana and treasures from cinema's heyday in the 1930s and 40s, while the catalogue is accessible through the Performing Arts Data Service. - The Complete History of the Discovery of Cinematography
A hugely ambitious attempt by Paul Burns to trace the origins of motion pictures from 900 BC through to the arrival of cinematography at the end of the 19th century. The quality of the information is variable, too often plain wrong, and does not begin to challenge a published work such as Hermann Hecht's Pre-Cinema History (1993), but the undertaking is courageous and imaginative, and the illustrations are very welcome. - The Dead Media Project
The Dead Media Project, brainchild of Bruce Sterling, is a huge gathering together of evidence on forms of public communication that are now obsolete, from the pigeon post to ancient Irish fire beacons. Dead means of communicating by moving pictures are naturally included, and include media with which Urban was associated, such as the Kinora, Kinoplastikon and Kinemacolor, as well as host of still more exotically-named inventions. An amazing undertaking, strongly recommended. - Eadweard Muybridge
One hundred animated Muybridge photographic sequences, produced from plates in his 1887 work Animal locomotion. Produced by the UCR/California Museum of Photography. - Early Visual Media
Idiosyncratic history of early types of visual media and their usage. Covers pre-cinema, photography, early film, conjuring and like subjects, with copious illustrations. - Elements of Screenology
Essay by Erkki Huhtamo on 'screenology', or theoretical ways in which to approach a history of screen practice, with plenty of references to pre-cinema modes of exhibition. - Étienne-Jules Marey: Movement in Light
Very impressive "online exhibition", constructed along panoramic lines, on the life and work of chronophotographer Étienne-Jules Marey. Extensively illustrated, with some Quicktime animations. The site mirrored an exhibiton put on by the Cinémathèque Française at the Fondation Electricité de France-Espace Electra in 2000, and anticipates the future Maison du Cinéma (now under construction), which will feature such complementary online exhibits. In French and English. - The Magic Lantern Society
A very clear and practical site devoted to the magic lantern, with a useful A-Z guide to the lantern and some excellent recreations of lantern effects. - MOMI
In 1999 London's Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) closed, awaiting the promised construction of a new museum. Filling the gap, and making his own subtle protest, Stephen Herbert (producer of The Projection Box) has devised an unofficial on-line version of the sections of the Museum that covered pre-cinema and early cinema. Beautifully illustrated and animated, it is the first place to learn about magic lanterns, the phantasmagoria, panoramas, zoetropes, phenakistoscopes, chronophotography and the first twenty years of cinema. - Museo del Precinema
Magic lanterns and lantern slides from the Minici Zotti Collection in Padova. In Italian and English. - Philosophical Toy World
A fascinating site created by 'The Society for Etheric Research' (essentially multimedia artist Zoe Beloff) which examines optical toys and other pre-cinema devices from a theoretical basis, combining through-provoking analyses with ingeniously-imagined web design, QuickTime movies and Shockwave animations. - The Projection Box
Information on pre-cinema and early cinema issues, in particular related to the publications of this inventive small publisher. The site is developing interestingly, with increased use of images and updated text, including new information on topics covered by Projection Box titles. Produced by Stephen Herbert, and linked to Herbert's virtual MOMI, or Museum of the Moving Image.