Edison Studios

A poor young boy goes on a field trip and dreams of escaping to a land beyond the sunset.

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.

Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of the famous fairy tale story of Jack and his magic beanstalk. Borrowing on cinematographic methods reminiscent of 'Georges Melies' , Porter uses animation, double exposure, and trick photography to illustrate the fairy's apparitions, Jack's dream, and the fast growing beanstalk.

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

“This film is remarkable in several respects. In the first place, it is full life-size. Secondly, it is the only accurate recent portrait of the great inventor. The scene is an actual one, showing Mr. Edison in working dress engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great Laboratory. There is sufficient movement to lead the spectator through the several processes of mixing, pouring, testing, etc. as if he were side by side with the principal. The lights and shadows are vivid, and the apparatus and other accessories complete a startling picture that will appeal to every beholder.” (Edison Catalog)

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

Country rube thinks what he sees on the movie screen is real. He jumps out of his seat to try to stop a kissing scene.

Lee Martin, one of the cowboy stars in 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West', rides a bronco as a crowd looks on. While the horse is trying to throw Martin off its back, another cowboy stands on top of a fence rail and occasionally fires his six-shooter, to spur on both horse and rider.

Early Edison short showing two men fencing.

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

Mr. Clayworth, a wealthy American and self-made man, has a daughter Bessie, who is determined to marry a foreign title much against her father's wishes. She has an American suitor, William Brooks, who is deeply in love with her but he is given little encouragement. Mr. Clayworth plans to discourage his daughter with nobility and accordingly goes to an employment agency where he engages three foreign menials to impersonate noblemen, supplying them with evening clothes and arranging to have them call at his house that evening. Bessie is overjoyed when she learns from father that three noblemen are to honor them with their presence. Father incidentally suggests that if the noblemen do not come up to her expectations to patch up her little quarrel with Billy and say no more about marrying a title. The fun begins when the three bogus noblemen present themselves at Clayworth's house as Duke Macaroni, Lord Brien Berue and Baron Hasenpfeffer.

A woman and a young girl each carry containers of bird feed, and they toss occasional handfuls to the chickens and doves in the farmyard. Most of the chickens stay nearby, but the doves occasionally fly off and then return to eat more.

Forbidden from marrying the man she loves by her wealthy businessman father because he is too poor Mildred Lord determines to find a solution. Attempting to live within the means her fiancée could afford, she finds the cost of food exorbitantly high and begins a campaign to force the prices down including taking on her father’s own company.

A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.

A live-action film adaptation of the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. This silent short film follows the established theme: the “Rarebit Fiend” gorges himself on rarebit and thus suffers spectacular hallucinatory dreams.

From Edison films catalog: One of the most peculiar customs of the Sioux Tribe is here shown, the dancers being genuine Sioux Indians, in full war paint and war costumes. 40 feet. 7.50. According to Edison film historian C. Musser, this film and others shot on the same day (see also Buffalo dance) featured Native American Indian dancers from Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, and represent the American Indian's first appearance before a motion picture camera.

William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.

A man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the second motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.

William K.L. Dickson and William Heise shake hands in this early experimental film.