File:A naked woman walking. Collotype after Muybridge, 1887 Wellcome L0075737.jpg

Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org A naked woman walking. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887.

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. Collotype 1887 By: University of Pennsylvania. and Eadweard MuybridgePublished: 1887 Printed: 1887)