Muybridge, Eadweard

Muybridge, Eadweard (1830-1904), Anglo-American photographer and moving picture pioneer, known for his photographs of animals and people in motion. He was born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames, where he was educated. After emigrating to the United States, he became a photographer for the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In 1872 he was accused of murdering his wife's lover, and although he was acquitted, he was obliged to travel in Central and South America for several years, photographing railway construction. In 1877 he demonstrated through photographs that when a horse runs, there is a moment when all of the animal's feet are off the ground, and that the feet are tucked beneath the animal at that moment. In 1881 he invented the zoopraxiscope, a device by which he reproduced on a screen horse races, the flight of birds, and athletic contests. He wrote The Horse in Motion (1878) and Animal Locomotion (11 vols., including 100,000 photographic plates, 1887). Portions of the latter work were published under the titles Animals in Motion and The Human Figure in Motion (1901).