Kingston Museum has collaborated with Google Arts and Culture to turn the work of famed Kingston resident Eadweard Muybridge into an interactive online experience.
Muybridge was born in Kingston in 1830 before emigrating to America to pursue his career. He returned to Kingston before his death and donated a large collection of his work to Kingston Museum.
As part of Google’s Once Upon a Try campaign, some of Muybridge’s collection is now available to view online.
Councillor Malcolm Self from Kingston Council said: “Kingston Museum holds an internationally significant collection, and I am delighted that through our partnership with Google Arts and Culture, we can share Muybridge’s story and collection further than ever before.
“Muybridge’s work was all about new technology, groundbreaking research and sharing images, so it’s wonderful to work with Google Arts to use contemporary technology to increase the accessibility of our world class collection.”
Online visitors can discover two interactive stories to learn about Muybridge’s pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and motion-picture projection.
Muybridge is most famous for photographing horses in motion and inventing the Zooproxiscope, one of the first moving image projectors.
The collection at Kingston Museum includes the only original Zooproxiscope in the world, as well as many of Muybridge’s personal items.
Seoyoung Kim, Kingston Museum curator, said: “One of the importances of Kingston Museum’s Muybridge Collection is its distinctive connection to Muybridge himself who was born and died in Kingston.
“Much emphasis has been made in this new Google online story to tell the world that Muybridge was a proud Kingstonian, whose influence and legacy are found in many aspects of our contemporary culture, from animation to advanced science.”
Google Arts and Culture’s Once Upon a Try exhibition interactively showcases the inventions and discoveries of over 400 individuals and organisations.
Amit Sood, director of Google Arts and Culture, said: “Through inspiring, and at times surprising, stories from over 100 partners, you can explore the inventions and discoveries that have shaped our world.
“Once Upon a Try is all about that first attempt, the idea, the journey of fulfilling a dream, and we hope it’ll give people that extra boost to find their own eureka moment.”
As well as the Eadweard Muybridge collection, online viewers can explore Marie Curie’s quest to find polonium and the story of Mary Anning, the paleontologist who discovered the pterodactyl.
