Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn

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Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn
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Eadweard Muybridge and the development of motion pictures
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Palo Alto Stock Farm
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Palo Alto Stock Farm
Location621 Fremont Road, Stanford, California
Coordinates 37°25′29″N122°11′04″W / 37.42472°N 122.18444°W / 37.42472; -122.18444
Builtc.1878–1880
Architectural styleStick-Eastlake
NRHP reference No. 85003325
CHISL No.834 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP1985 [2]
Designated CHISLNovember 3, 1969

Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn, also known as Stanford Red Barn or Stanford Stables, is located at present-day address 621 Fremont Road in Stanford, California. [3] This barn was established c.1878-1880 and is an example of Victorian-era Stick-Eastlake style architecture, though the architect is unknown. [3] [4] Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. [4] [5] [6] There are only two original buildings left from the Palo Alto Stock Farm: the red barn and the brick stable. [7]

Contents

History

Electioneer statue and Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn Electioneer statue and Palo Alto Stock Farm horse barn, Fremont Rd., Palo Alto, CA 6-3-2012 3-06-34 PM.JPG
Electioneer statue and Palo Alto Stock Farm Horse Barn

Leland Stanford bought the Mayfield Grange property in 1876, approximately 650 acres along San Francisquito Creek. [8] In the following years, Stanford acquired about 8,000 acres of land in the surrounding area. [8] The red barn was the center of the stock farm in the early years, and additionally there was a carriage house, a colt barn and a training barn. [3] In the 21st century, there are only two original buildings left from the Palo Alto Stock Farm, the red barn and the brick stable. [7]

From 1878 to 1880 the barn served as a training stable for the stock farm. [8] In 1877 the stallion Electioneer was brought to the barn and lived there for 14 years, in order to breed and train faster horses. [8] One of the early innovations to come from the farm included a "school" to train 5-month-old colts to trot around a small track to encourage this behavior. [7] [9] Stanford advocated co-educational universities during a time when this was not a popular idea; this may have been partially based on his observing at the barn the relationship of the mother of a colt being trained and its effect on teaching her offspring properly, suggesting the importance of the first five years in a child's development and the need for an educated mother. [7]

In c.1877, photographer Eadweard Muybridge's series of stop-action photographs of horses running Sallie Gardner at a Gallop was photographed at Palo Alto Stock Farm. In order to take the photograph, Muybridge built a stage with 24 cameras with a trip wire and discover galloping horses did momentarily have all four hooves leave the ground. [10] This discovery was a precursor to the technology for the motion picture industry. [10]

By 1903 the farm was closed and the horses sold in order to maintain the university, [7] though by 1946, university president Donald Tresidder reopened the building for equestrian use. In the mid-1980s, the barn became the home of Stanford University's equestrian team. [6] In 1985, L.W. “Bill” Lane Jr. and their family donated a statue of Electioneer, currently located in the entrance to the equestrian center. [8] In 1983 and in 2004 there were large restorations and renovations of the barn done while maintaining much of the original material, this funded by L.W. “Bill” Lane Jr. and John Arrillaga. [4] [8]

Landmark status

Development of Motion Pictures Landmark #834 USA-Stanford-Development of Motion Pictures.JPG
Development of Motion Pictures Landmark #834

On November 3, 1969, the Office of Historic Preservation designated Eadweard Muybridge and the Development of Motion Pictures as a California historical landmark #834. A description on the commemorative plaque reads: "In commemoration of the motion picture research conducted in 1878 and 1879 by Eadweard Muybridge at the Palo Alto Stock Farm, now the site of Stanford University. This extensive photographic experiment portraying the attitudes of animals in motion was conceived by and executed under the direction and patronage of Leland Stanford. Consecutive instantaneous exposures were provided for a battery of 24 cameras fitted with electroshutters." [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palo Alto, California</span> City in California, United States

Palo Alto is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eadweard Muybridge</span> English photographer (1830–1904)

Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leland Stanford</span> American politician and railroad tycoon (1824–1893)

Amasa Leland Stanford was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party politician from California. He served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1885 until his death in 1893. He and his wife Jane founded Stanford University, named after their late son.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoopraxiscope</span> Early motion picture device

The zoopraxiscope is an early device for displaying moving images and is considered an important predecessor of the movie projector. It was conceived by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in 1879. Muybridge used the projector in his public lectures from 1880 to 1895. The projector used 16" glass disks onto which Muybridge had an unidentified artist paint the sequences as silhouettes. This technique eliminated the backgrounds and enabled the creation of fanciful combinations and additional imaginary elements. Only one disk used photographic images, of a horse skeleton posed in different positions. A later series of 12″ discs, made in 1892–1894, used outlines drawn by Erwin F. Faber that were printed onto the discs photographically, then colored by hand. These colored discs were probably never used in Muybridge's lectures. All images of the known 71 disks, including those of the photographic disk, were rendered in elongated form to compensate the distortion of the projection. The projector was related to other projecting phenakistiscopes and used some slotted metal shutter discs that were interchangeable for different picture disks or different effects on the screen. The machine was hand-cranked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stable</span> Building for horses and other livestock

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the American-style barn, for instance, is a large barn with a door at each end and individual stalls inside or free-standing stables with top and bottom-opening doors. The term "stable" is additionally utilised to denote a collection of animals under the care of a single owner, irrespective of their housing or whereabouts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronophotography</span> Photographic technique which captures changes in the subjects motion over time

Chronophotography is a photographic technique from the Victorian era which captures a number of phases of movements. The best known chronophotography works were mostly intended for the scientific study of locomotion, to discover practical information for animal handlers and/or as reference material for artists. Although many results were not intended to be exhibited as moving pictures, there is much overlap with the more or less simultaneous quest to register and exhibit photographic motion pictures.

<i>The Photographer</i> Chamber opera by Philip Glass

The Photographer is a three-part mixed media performance accompanied by music by composer Philip Glass. The libretto is based on the life and homicide trial of 19th-century English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Commissioned by the Holland Festival, the opera was first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horses in art</span>

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The decade of the 1870s in film involved some significant events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronophotographic gun</span> 1882 camera invented by Étienne-Jules Marey

The chronophotographic gun is one of the ancestors of the movie camera. It was invented in 1882 by Étienne-Jules Marey, a French scientist and chronophotographer. It could shoot 12 images per second and it was the first invention to capture moving images on the same chronomatographic plate using a metal shutter.

<i>The Horse in Motion</i> 1878 photographs by Eadweard Muybridge

The Horse in Motion is a series of cabinet cards by Eadweard Muybridge, including six cards that each show a sequential series of six to twelve "automatic electro-photographs" depicting the movement of a horse. Muybridge shot the photographs in June 1878. An additional card reprinted the single image of the horse "Occident" trotting at high speed, which had previously been published by Muybridge in 1877.

<i>The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand</i> Painting by Thomas Eakins

The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand is an 1879–80 painting by the American painter Thomas Eakins. It shows Fairman Rogers driving a coaching party in his four-in-hand carriage through Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. It is thought to be the first painting to examine precisely, through systematic photographic analysis, how horses move.

Laurence William Lane Jr. was an American magazine publisher, diplomat, and philanthropist.

Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman (1819–1888) was personal physician to Leland Stanford, the eighth governor of California. He is "'credited with counseling Mrs. Stanford sufficiently so that after eighteen years of marriage, she bore a son, Leland Jr., in whose memory Stanford University was established by his father.' The nature of this miraculous counseling is not specified."

<i>Animal Locomotion</i> Series of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge

Animal Locomotion: An Electro-photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements is a series of scientific photographs by Eadweard Muybridge made in 1884 and 1885 at the University of Pennsylvania, to study motion in animals. Published in July 9, 1887, the chronophotographic series comprised 781 collotype plates, each containing up to 36 pictures of the different phases of a specific motion of one subject.

Events in 1882 in animation.

Events in 1879 in animation.

Events in 1878 in animation.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Eadweard Muybridge and the Development of Motion Pictures". Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  2. "NPGallery Digital Asset Management System". National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior.
  3. 1 2 3 "National Register #85003325: Stanford University Red Barn". noehill.com. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  4. 1 2 3 "National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form". US Department of Interior. 1985-12-12. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  5. "CALIFORNIA - Santa Clara County". National Register of Historical Places. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  6. 1 2 "Red Barn reinvigorated / Daylong party celebrates refurbished symbol of Stanford's farm heritage". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Staiger, Steve (1999-02-17). "Horsing around at the Palo Alto Stock Farm". Palo Alto Weekly. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Stanford Equestrian History". Stanford University. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  9. "Palo Alto Stock Farm". Stanford Daily News Archive, Volume 54, Issue 19, 11 November 1918. Stanford University. 1918-11-11. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  10. 1 2 "Eadweard Muybridge - a man and photos in motion". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-06-20.