#choreutoscope

[hagleyvault]

We’re posting this dancing skeleton today in the spirit of the final day of the Day of the Dead, a Central American multi-day holiday in which celebrants pray for and rejoice in the memory of departed friends and family.

This nimble fellow is the product of a glass disk choreutoscope (ca. 1880?), seen in the image below. The choreutoscope is a form of early animated entertainment that consisted of paper and glass discs mounted at the end of a wood frame. The glass disk has six individual scenes of a skeleton. As you rotated the disk in quick succession, the rapidly flashing images of each individual scene were intended to create the illusion of a dancing figure.

The choreutoscope, much like the closely related cinematograph, was invented in the later 19th century. It was the creation of the British physician Lionel Smith Beale (1828-1906), who invented it in 1866 but never patented his design. This enabled others to make use of his innovation, including the American A. B. Brown in 1869 and the English optician William Charles Hughes (1828-1906) in 1884.

This particular model was made by the firm of T.H. McAllister, which had its roots in the Philadelphia optical business of John McAllister, Sr. (1753-1830). The senior McAllister emigrated to Philadelphia from Scotland around 1775, and established a business selling whips and canes before adding spectacles to his stock in 1796. The company, located on Chestnut Street, remained in operation for the next hundred years, changing names as it passed from generation to generation.

In 1865, Thomas Hamilton McCallister (1824‐1898), one of John McAllister’s grandchildren, left Philadelphia to start his own optical business in New York City. In 1867, he began manufacturing an inexpensive ‘household microscope’ for use by hobbyists. Its popularity led his brother William Young McCallister to begin carrying the microscope in the family’s Philadelphia storefront, along with the many other similar models that would spring up in the aftermath of Thomas’s design.

In addition to microscopes, Thomas’s store, located first on Broadway before relocating to Nassau Street, specialized in magic lanterns and similar items. His choreutoscope was a popular design for manufacturers, due to the fact that Lionel Smith Beale’s model also utilized a skeleton motif.

The item is part of Hagley Library’s collection of Alexis du Pont stereoviews and lantern slides (Accession 2016.303). The collection has an accompanying digital collection also includes non-mechanical lantern slides, stereoviews, an astronomical rackwork slide, single and double slip slides, and slip panorama slides. Animated video files accompany these items to demonstrate them in use.

To view these items now in our Digital Archive, just click here.

[creacher-captions]

[image description: printed reproductions of two choreutoscope slides. They show three cutout stencil skeletons dancing. The left skeleton reaches up and then detaches its own head, holding it out in its right hand. The middle skeleton squats down low with its hands in the air, then jumps up high. The right skeleton stands straight, then steps to the right and raises a hand as if to wave. End description]

Dancing skeletons for a 19th century animation device. The boys’ playbook of science. 1881. 

[tylermai-oca-blog]

Motion Studies : Time , Space & Eadweard Muybridge

Rebecca Solnit

- End of 1870s, photo experimentation led to the beginning of motion-picture technology. Man who discovered this - Edward James Muybridge - San francisco

- Zoo trope - device that forms a series of moving images

- technology aspires to “annihilate space and time” - accelerating communications and transport in order for our bodies and speed to be less burdensome.

- Mid 1800′s , the hope of making images mechanically rather than manually was growing popular.

- Talbot’s process -  (universal method since 1850s)  produced a negative image which was then printed in order to print positives from that negative.

- Daguerre’s process -  found a way to print direct positives onto polished plates.

- In the 1850′s photographs began to be mass produced with everybody wanting access to photographs. 

- In the mid 19th century, photography took many forms.  The most respected photographs were ones that resembled paintings. During this era, all photographs were contact prints which involved laying the glass negative directly onto photosensitive paper. 

- the most ambitious and technical photographs of this era were called “Mammoth plates” (Primarily large landscape photographs).

- 1860′s - popular photograph forms were carte de de visite, portraits about the size of playing cards, “magic lantern” slides could also be projected onto walls.

- Stereograph -  Popularised at the end of the 1850′s. This was a hyperdimensional medium , These were two photographs combined to give a three-dimensional effect. Less like a depth of field shot, but more like a pop-up book.

- Photography combines art, science  involving chemistry/optics  and business,

- Around the 1960′s - 70′s, when travelling with landscape photography tools and equipment, people had to camp in an orange or red tent to prevent exposing them.

- The camera itself was more elaborate, involving a tripod mounted wooden box, sliding boxes, dark cloth and no metres or limits on the camera, therefore the photographer had to rely on technique.

- Chemistry of wet-plate photography perceived yellows as darker and blues as lighter.

- Late 18th - 19th century, vanishing ecology was recycled in the form of imagery e.g. clothes patterns, engraved pocket watches.

- In 1859, flash photography was anticipated by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

- By the 1970′s instantaneous photography was something many wished to achieve and was becoming a more noticeable and popular topic.

- When Muybridge finally caught the image of Occident the horse with all four hooves in the air, it was considered a transformative part of photography history. The desire was to catch a photo that was as quick as the human eye but these processes produced images that were much slower beforehand. He had begun transforming photography into a scientific instrument revealing motion.

- In the mid 1800′s panoramas were invented and became a popular form of display, particularly for landscapes of towns or cities.

- By 1879 Muybridge had developed the beginning of film  through the form of the panorama and actors and actresses  were introduced.

- Although cinema would eventually devote itself to entertainment functions, it was considered a scientific movement at the time when it was introduced.

- 1832 - Plateau invented the phenakistoscope, a slotted disk with images printed on one side, spun with the images facing a mirror to create the illusion of motion.

- Eastman’s celluloid film was a crucial breakthrough and ever since, motion pictures have been the same size as this film.

- 1860′s - The choreutoscope was invented, this is a device which projected simulated motion.

- A camera that could take quick and successive exposures would solve the first step towards film cameras.

- 1895 - The Lumiere brothers  invented the cinematographe - new medium of cinema. This consisted of a camera, projector, perforated film and tooth and claw mechanisms.

- Many artists have paid homage to Muybridge’s studies and inventions such as Degas and Francis Bacon.

Overall, after reading this book, I feel I have learned a lot about the history of both photography and film. I was surprised to find out just how much it affected society and culture. As a person who grew up in the digital age, it is hard to imagine comprehending photography or film if I had ever seen one before, it has made me realise how important this art form is and how much studying and scientific processes went into the development of capturing images and particularly motion. I was fascinated by the photography of the environment and how it was revolutionary to capture images of clouds and running water. The culture and drama that surrounded the invention of photography and motion pictures was very interesting and it was a great insight to the development of photography and motion pictures.

[curatorial-meanderings]

Choreutoscope, America, c.1870

 "The choreutoscope was invented by L.S. Beale of England in 1866. This is an American version. The "dancing skeleton" becomes animated by having a sliding set of separate images pass rapidly behind an opening with a shutter masking each successive movement and creating a continous animation."

[hagleyvault]

Its here! #PhenakistoscopePhriday! And conveniently just in time to announce our newest digital collection, made from our Alexis du Pont stereoviews and lantern slides (Accession 2016.303).

The phenakistoscope was a popular 19th century parlor toy that relied on optical illusion to create on of the earliest forms of animated entertainment. Invented simultaneously by physicist Joseph Plateau in Brussels and by mathematician Simon von Stamper in Berlin in 1832, the device was marketed under slightly more pronounceable monikers such as ‘stroboscope’, ‘phantasmascope’, ‘motoscope’, ‘fantoscope’, ‘magic wheel’, and others.

The first phenakistoscopes were printed, drawn, or painted on non-transparent surfaces like cardboard. The phenakistoscopes in this collection, however, are made of glass, and were intended to be used in conjunction with a magic lantern, an early type of image projector. The phenakistoscope seen above is, like the rest of its cohort in the collection, undated. We estimate that it was created at some point around the second half of the 19th century.

In addition to phenakistoscopes, the digital collection also includes non-mechanical lantern slides, stereoviews, and (yes!) more mechanical lantern slides, including a choreutoscope, an astronomical rackwork slide, single and double slip slides, and slip panorama slides. Animated video files accompany these items to demonstrate them in use.

To view these items now in our Digital Archive, just click here.