Eadweard Muybridge (Kingston upon Thames 1830 - 1904) was one of the world's most innovative and influential photographic pioneers. His extensive studies of humans and animals in motion played a critical role in the history of photography and the moving image and continue to inspire us to this day.
For most of his professional career Muybridge lived and worked in the United States. However, he bequeathed his personal collection of material to his hometown in England, now held at Kingston Museum & Archive. This important collection includes Muybridge’s original Zoöpraxiscope machine and 68 of only 71 glass Zoöpraxiscope discs known to exist worldwide. In addition, the archive holds many personalised lantern slides, hundreds of collotype prints, rare early albums, Muybridge’s own scrapbook in which he charts his entire career, a copy of his epic San Franscisco Panorama; and many other items that make the Kingston Muybridge bequest a collection of major international significance.
Muybridge in Kingston is an exciting collaborative research and development partnership between Kingston University and the Royal Borough of Kingston aiming to celebrate and investigate Kingston Museum's world-class collection. This ongoing partnership aims to broaden access to the collection and understanding of it through a programme of innovative research projects including special exhibitions, publications, web-resources, conferences, symposia and other public events.
This year Tate Britain is staging the first major UK retrospective of Muybridge's work and to mark this occasion Muybridge in Kingston is staging a unique exhibition of rare material not featured in the Tate show; supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. A series of contemporary art commissions inspired by material in the collection will also be staged at the University's Stanley Picker Gallery.
This website provides an essential overview of what Muybridge in Kingston has to offer, including an introduction to key past and future projects and a list of specially recommended events and lectures related to Muybridge and his work.
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