A naked man crouches, picks up a dumb-bell from the ground in his right hand, straightens, raising it to head height, holding it at arm's length from his body then lowers it to his waist. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887.

[Philadelphia] : [University of Pennsylvania], 1887 ([Philadelphia] : [The Photo-gravure Company], 1887)

1 print : collotype ; image 13.8 x 45.3 cm.

Animal locomotion. ... Copyright, 1887, by Eadweard Muybridge. All rights reserved. Bears plate number: 326

One of 781 collotypes which form Eadweard Muybridge's magnum opus, Animal locomotion, 1887. This work originated in an attempt to settle the argument which arose in 1871 between Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad, and Robert Bonner, owner of the New York Ledger, as to whether a trotting horse ever had all four feet off the ground at once. Both men were prepared to enter the controversy fully and to contribute ideas and practical means to prove his side of the argument. Muybridge's solution was to photograph each stage in the trot of a horse called Occident owned by Stanford. Some of Muybridge's photographs did appear to show Occident with all four of his feet lifted at the same time clear of the ground. The research and photography for Animal Locomotion was carried out for the University of Pennsylvania in 1884-1885, using and improving the techniques developed in the 1870s. Of the 781 plates, 95 were devoted to the horse and 124 to other animals. The other 562 are devoted to men, women, and children, nude, semi-nude, and draped, walking, running, dancing, getting up and lying down, wrestling, boxing, leaping, etc. For further information see G. Hendricks, Eadweard Muybrige, London 1975, and R.B. Haas, Muybridge: man in motion, Berkeley 1976

E. Muybridge, Animal locomotion: an electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements. Prospectus and catalogue of plates, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1887, p. xiv, no. 326 ("Lifting 50-lb. dumb-bell at arm's length")

Wellcome Collection 2005733i