Cinematic Era: 1900 Vintage

An advertisement made for Dewar's whisky brand.

Singing "La Chanson du tambour-major"

An astonishing display of synchronised gymnastics. The looping, synchronised vaults on display here are truly mesmerising - thanks both to the skill of the gymnasts and the shrewd positioning of the camera. Military and athletic displays were a popular subject for film from its earliest days, and this demonstration works as visual spectacle and study of movement.

Walter Gibbons was one of Britain's most forward-thinking film entrepreneurs, and deeply entranced by the music hall. In 1900 he launched his 'phono bio tableaux', which synchronised songs recorded by famous music stars on disc with a film of the performance. Sadly, all but one of the films are lost, making this last survivor a unique record of a major Victorian music hall star in sound and vision, as well as the oldest British 'sound film', nearly thirty years before the 'talkies' arrived. Lil Hawthorne, who performs this song, was a well-known American singer, often adopting a male persona, although she was not strictly a male impersonator.

A single shot of a fleet of warships at sea, with a sunset sky superimposed from another sequence to complete the effect.

The plot outlines the story of the early Christian martyrs with a compendium of horrors such as maulings at the Colosseum, crucifixions, beheadings, savage hackings and burnings at the stake, burnings in the limepit, the spectacle of human torches in Nero's garden.

Pedestrians and cars traffic in Biarritz.

A group of tambours and dancers in traditional outfits pass the camera.

A conjurer (along with two duplicates) conjure up (and then cause to vanish) a beautiful woman head-first.

Royal Navy recruits firing cannons and rifles on board a ship.

A slightly risqué scene. In her bedroom, a young woman, standing on a rug in front of her bed, removes her corset. Smiling, she bares her shoulders and puts on her nightgown before letting her petticoat slide down. Then she picks up a daisy, plucks its petals, and gets under the covers.

Marquesas in their sedan chairs.

This scene opens by showing a pretty cook mixing bread in the kitchen. Jones comes in unexpectedly from a trip and carries a dress suitcase. He inquires for his wife and is told by the cook that she is absent. Jones is hungry and asks for something to eat. The cook is very obliging and Jones becomes unruly, chuckles the cook under the chin. The cook puts her arms around Jones' neck and leaves finger imprints of flour on his back. This is where the trouble commences. (Edison catalogue)

This scene is laid on a tropical shore. A pickaninny is fishing, when a huge alligator creeps up upon him and swallows him. The old father, who has seen the disaster, rushes in with an axe and chops the alligator open, pulling the boy out none the worse for his experience.

Panorama of the Swiss city.

TRICK. Two bathers arrive at a river, disrobe at the water's edge and dive in. The action is then reversed and the men are seen leaving the water feet first and their clothes fly back on their bodies.

A burlesque on the work of highwaymen in Chicago. An elderly gentleman is sandbagged and robbed by a thug, who inadvertently leaves some money on the victim's prostrate body. A policeman shows up.

The famous Polytechnic Harriers, one of Britain’s premier athletic clubs, who would later open the 1908 London Olympics, running a paper chase – a gruelling cross-country race in which the “hares” lay a paper trail for the “hounds”.

Two men lose it laughing at something in a magazine

A panoramic shot, making a full circle, at the 1900 Paris Exposition. It begins and ends looking at the front of the Palace of Electricity. As it pans, first we see a workman hosing down the promenade. Men and women walk past, all wearing hats. We see the base of the Eiffel Tower, which the Palace faces. A couple strolls. A mother and daughter walk passed, father is slightly ahead wearing a boater. Three men in uniform walk toward the camera as it comes to a stop facing the Palace.

An antisemitic comedy in which two Jewish clothiers cut prices until one buys the other's stock.

In this picture some very remarkable effects are obtained by the reversal of the motion of the negative. A man comes home, somewhat under the influence of liquor, and starts to remove his outer clothes. As fast as he removes each article and throws it from him, it immediately flies back, and when he is completely bewildered by this weird proceeding, His Satanic Majesty suddenly appears, and the man collapses.

This picture shows thousands of people leaving their seats in the grand stand and going across the parade grounds toward Paris. A very sharp and clear picture.

A succession of British soldiers are carried up a gangplank by stretcher-bearers from the quayside to a hospital ship at Durban; walking casualties make their way up a different gangplank.

This picture opens with the young cadets climbing the rigging and going through the sail drill on board the famous historic ship "Constellation." Loosing sail to buntline, making sail, shortening sail and furling; also loose sail to bowline. This picture is absolutely perfect photographically; also very thrilling, and makes a most interesting subject.

Dam Square in Amsterdam, bustling with pedestrians and horse trams.

Overview of the Alexandre III bridge during the World Exhibition in Paris.

"A series of admirable living pictures, posed by competent artists, and faithfully representing well-known art masterpieces, notably the works of Sarony. At the opening of each picture, curtains are thrown aside by two pages, the picture remains for a short interval in complete repose, and the curtains are drawn. In other words, these living pictures are shown exactly as in first-class vaudeville theatres, and were prepared with equal care." Series was finished by 1903 and the films were shown as one presentation.

Taken from an automobile. This picture was taken during the fashionable driving hour, making a complete circle of the Place de la Concorde, passing hundreds of carriages and busses. The beginning of the picture shows the historical church of the Madeleine in the background, the picture ending by approaching and running under the main entrance to the Paris Exposition.

A comical fight between two Hebrews; one a pushcart man, and the other a suspender peddler.

A crew of railroad workmen are busy along the tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. When the Black Diamond Express appears in the distance, they begin to pull back from the rails to clear the way. As the train approaches their work site, some of them begin to wave at it.

Film produced by William K. Dickson’s British Mutoscope and Biograph Company.

Coolie Boys Diving for Coins positions a scene, popularised in early film generally, within a distinctly colonial context. As with similar films, it uses attractions that, as Joe Kember argued, ‘were more broadly characteristic of several early genres, among them the intriguing spectacle of a chaotic flurry of limbs projected on-screen, the prevailing “Mischievous boy” and racial stereotypes (derived in part from contemporary conventions in the music halls)’

A man attempts to shave with a blunt razor.

Trollies, and people taking a stroll on a corner in Paris

A "lady" undresses for bed.

Man and woman dance.

On a stage in front of a painted backdrop representing a park, Blanche and Louise Mante, one dressed in a man "Incroyable" suit from the 1st Empire period, dance.

In an arena, a Landes race scene with cows.

Footage showing Arab riders.

People riding on a moving platform / walkway.

Two delinquent clerks are seated in a broker's office engaged in a game of cards. The boss suddenly appears walking through the corridor. The cards are thrown down in great haste and when the employer enters the office the clerks are apparently busily engaged in their work.

It is train time. We look down the long platform, crowded with people, and see the famous N.P. Railway Overland Express approaching rapidly. In a moment the engine passes by, slowing down. Then comes one, two, three, four express cars, and behind them seven coaches and Pullmans. Passengers alight, baggage is unloaded, friends greet each other, station men rush here and there, the whole scene being one of great interest and activity.

“Same scenery as in the previous view, the sailors embark in the canoes which take them ashore.”

A woman in ballet slippers wearing a large white hat and a long white dress - with ruffles, puffy sleeves and petticoats - dances across water with roiling waves behind her. She holds the edges of the skirt with her hands, lifting and twirling, sometimes exposing her bloomers and a dark garter on one leg. Her style combines ballet with the exuberant kicks and twirls of a burlesque dance hall. With churning waves behind her, the water seems to wash beneath her feet. The film of the dancer, "M'lle. Cathrina Bartho" (1899), is superimposed on that of the water, "Upper Rapids, from Bridge" (1896).

Movement of visitors in front of the Exhibition water tower.

A highland fling

Shot in 1900, the film is of Elizabeth Yates, a trailblazing woman elected Mayor of Onehunga in 1893 – just a few weeks after New Zealand women became the first in the world to win suffrage and the right to vote in a general election. Created by Enos Pegler for the Zealandia Living Picture Company, the film is a re-enactment – most likely of a speech Yates gave to the local council. Lacking sufficient lighting technology, many early films were filmed outdoors on a set made to look like it’s inside. This film is no exception – look closely and you will see the ‘walls’ are blowing in the breeze.

Panorama of the Quai de la Seine, Paris, France.

This striking film re-stages an episode from the Matabele wars between African natives and British infantry

Tracking shot across a bay showing a large number of fishing boats.

The magic of a real solar eclipse filmed on 28 May, 1900 by a famous magician, Nevil Maskelyne, while on an expedition by The British Astronomical Association to North Carolina.