Call Number:

PH-01010

Collection Name:

Harold Eugene Edgerton Photography Collection

Creator:

No. of Items:

35 items

Span Dates:

1930s-1970 (bulk 1930s)

Description:

Harold Eugene Edgerton (American, 1903-1990) was an electrical engineer and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose photographic images and inventions have contributed greatly to the development of photography in the twentieth century. His work reflects a particular interest in “stopping motion” in order to study it. To this end he and his partners Kenneth Germeshausen and Hebert E. Grier invented a variety of strobe systems which allow for exposures so brief as to capture on film events which occur too quickly to be perceived by the unaided eye. Their achievements led ultimately to the development of the electronic speed flash system now in common use.

This collection of 33 black-and-white and 2 color prints by Edgerton contains a representative sampling of his work in terms of both period and subject matter. The images date from the 1930s to circa 1970, and the subjects range from the splash of a milk drop to the explosion of an atomic bomb. There are a number of studies of people in motion, including athletes from a variety of sports such as archery, diving, fencing, football, golf, pole vaulting, and tennis. Among the other subjects represented, both animate and inanimate, are birds, bullets, and broken glass.

About a third of the prints in the collection are multiple exposures showing successive phases of motion. The rest have been made from single exposures of as little as 1/100,000,000 of a second. Among these images are three silhouettes. There is also a print produced from a segment of high-speed motion picture film.

Among the loose prints are the following six photographs:

964:3352:0001 -- Fencing Salute, 1938. Gelatin silver print;
964:3352:0002 -- Baton in Action, 1953?. Gelatin silver print;
964:3352:0003 -- Tennis Serve, 1949?. Gelatin silver print;
964:3352:0004 -- Diver, 5 splashes, 1940?. Gelatin silver print;
964:3352:0005 -- Densmore Shute bending the shaft, 1938. Gelatin silver print;
964:3352:0006 -- Splash of a Milk Drop, 1936?. Gelatin silver print.

Accession No(s):

964:3352:0001-0006; 997:0015:0001-0029

Location(s):

Edgerton, H.E., Boxes 1-2 (997:0015:0001-0029)
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E Box, Medium (964:3352:0001-0005)
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E Box, Large (964:3352:0006)
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Item(s):

See Also:

Harold Eugene Edgerton: Ten Dye Transfer Photographs