1891

Thomas Edison files a patent application on a moving picture camera (Kinteograph) and film

1892

Edison’s patents rejected.

1894

Edison Manufacturing Company established.

1896

William K. Dickson, principal inventor of the Kinetoscope, leaves Edison and helps establish the American Mutoscope Company.

The Latham’s Eidloscope in New York, Thomas Armat’s Phantascope in Atlanta and the Lumieres’ Cinematographe in Paris show the first public protection of moving pictures.

1897

The first public performance of the Edison Vitascope pictures.

J. Stuart Blackton establishes the Vitagraph Company of America.

William Selig forms the Selig Polyscope Company.

1898

“Actualities” of the Spanish-American war are immensely popular as a pictorial news service, shown in “legitimate” and vaudeville theatres, in amusement parks and by travelling exhibitors.

1899

American Mutoscope becomes the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (Biograph)

1900

Biograph produces some of the first multiple-shot fiction pictures.