FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  __________January 2007

 

WAGNER FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE                                                                     

“At the Crossroads of Art and Science:

The Motion Study Photography of Eadweard Muybridge”

Weeknights at the Wagner

Thursday, March 1, 2007, 5 – 7 PM, Lecture at 5:30 PM

 

CONTACT:  Beth Case, 215-763-6529, ext. 13 for further information

 

Philadelphia in the Victorian era was strong in both science and art, and both these interests converged in Eadweard Muybridge, who conducted his famous motion studies here.  This lecture looks at the way that his experiments were supported by both the artists and the scientists of Philadelphia, whose interests in his work were remarkably similar.  In particular, this lecture will look at the interaction between Fairman Rogers and Thomas Eakins, the engineer and the painter, the principal sponsors for Muybridge’s move to Philadelphia.

 

Professor and author Michael J. Lewis of Williams College will give an exciting talk on Eadweard Muybridge, the pioneer of the moving picture who is best known for his scientific studies of humans and animals.  While Muybridge’s method was that of science, his frame of reference was that of art – and he justified his insights by comparing them to what the great artists for the world, from the time of the Egyptians and Greeks to the Impressionists, had told of nature.  The talk will be illustrated using images from Muybridge’s own publications and slides lectures.

 

Professor Lewis’s talk is part of the Institute’s new after- work lecture series, Weeknights at the Wagner.  Dr. Lewis will speak in the historic lecture hall on Thursday, March 1st, at 5:30 PM.  There will be a question and answer session immediately following the talk.

 

“Animal Locomotion. An Electrophotographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements, 1872-1885” – the Institute’s own Muybridge folio – will be on display.

 

The museum is open from 5 – 7 PM.   The Lecture begins at 5:30 PM.

 

Michael J. Lewis is professor of American art and architecture at Williams College.  His books include American Art and Architecture (2006), Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind (2001), and the prize-winning The Politics of the German Gothic Revival (1993).  He writes on art and culture, and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and the New Criterion.

 

Museum admission is free. A donation of $8 is suggested for ages 12 and up.

 

Founded in 1855, the Wagner Free Institute of Science is a museum and educational institution that is nearly unchanged from the nineteenth century.  The museum building, a National Historic Landmark completed in 1865, houses a natural history collection begun by William Wagner in the early nineteenth century and expanded by naturalist Joseph Leidy in the 1880’s.  The collection includes skeletons, fossils, shells, minerals and mounted animals.  The Museum is open to the public Tuesday-Friday, 9 AM to 4 PM.

 

The Institute’s free public education courses in science are in their 151^st year, making them the oldest program devoted to free adult education in the United States.  The Institute also has a strong commitment to children’s education.  It offers a range of programs for visiting school groups, and cultivates special partnerships with neighboring inner-city schools.

 

Wagner Free Institute of Science

1700 West Montgomery Avenue

Philadelphia, PA  19121

ph 215-763-6529   ·   fax 215-763-1299

www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org