UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 38, Page 4
August 3, 1995
Library to present exhibit on a century of cinema

     In celebration of the first 100 years of cinema, the University
of Delaware Library is presenting an exhibition about the history and
study of film. "Cinema Centenary, 1895-1995," will be on view on the
first floor and lower level of the Morris Library from Aug. 22-Jan.
26.
     The exhibition is set to coincide with the Winter Session theme,
"100 Years of Film."
     Included are books, journals, film scripts, press releases,
photographs, videocassettes, videodiscs and a variety of film
memorabilia. There also are a number of framed vintage movie posters
hung near the first-floor display and in the media unit on the lower
level of the library.
     The display was curated by Francis Poole, associate librarian in
the Media Services Department.
     The subject of cinema includes a wide range of interests, from
the technical aspects of film production to actors, directors and
specific film genres. The library display is organized into three main
categories: the beginnings of film making and the silent era;
directors; and film and popular culture.
     People began going to the movies in 1895, but the development of
motion pictures was not an overnight event. The presentation and
production of early movies evolved simultaneously over a number of
years in the United States and in Europe, from such simple devices as
discs of whirling images and booklets of pictures flipped by the
thumb.
     By the 1890s, Thomas Edison had developed Kinetoscope peephole
viewing machines that were installed in parlors, hotels, taverns and
department stores throughout the country. At about the same time, the
French inventors Louis and Auguste Lumiere produced a machine called a
Cinematographe.
     This invention improved upon Edison's Kinetoscope by being
lighter and by using a claw mechanism that pulled each frame into
place before the aperture.
     The Lumiere's device actually projected the moving image on an
external screen rather than through a peephole viewer.
     Though some regard the 1893 Kinetographic viewing of Thomas
Edison's The Blacksmith as the beginning of cinema, the International
Federation of Film Archives marks 1895 as the birth date of motion
pictures. The Lumieres are credited with being the first to exhibit a
film publicly. On Dec. 28, 1895, they presented a series of short
films, each only a minute or two long, before a paying public at the
Grand Cafe in Paris.
     Over the next 100 years, cinema developed into an art form that
captivated the world. What began as an experiment that few took
seriously in 1895, has evolved into a major industry-a complicated
social, cultural and technological business with enormous influence
over the world's populace.
                                                        -Francis Poole