American Eagle Flying Near the Ground: Plate 771 from Animal Locomotion (1887)
Eadweard J. Muybridge
American, born England. 1830–1904
1884-86
A collotype print of Muybridge’s sequential photographs that records an American eagle’s changing wing and body positions in flight to analyze motion.
A regimented grid of small, high‑contrast frames against a ruled backdrop freezes each instant so the eagle’s wings, head, and body read like a staccato choreography across time.
Part of Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion series, this pioneering chronophotography made rapid movement visible and helped lay groundwork for biomechanics, motion studies, and the development of cinema.
Medium
Collotype
Dimensions
8 7/16 × 13 3/4" (21.4 × 34.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum
Accession
181.1937
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
