We are jumping ten years after the Sallie Gardner horse stop motion film and since we are jumping ten years I figured I would mention three films which were made in 1888.

Louis Le Prince is an early inventor who created his own film cameras. In 1888 he made several films, some of which still remain today. The first filmed is called the Roundhay Garden Scene. It was filmed at Oakwood Grange, the home of Joseph and Sarah Whitley, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England on October 14, 1888. The film was recorded at 12 frames per second. This is currently the oldest surviving film shot from a single camera.

On October 24, 1888, ten days after being filmed in Roundhay Garden Scene, Sarah Robinson Whitley, who stars in the film and also Le Prince’s mother-in-law, died aged 72 and was buried nearby on October 27 at St. John’s Church, Roundhay, Leeds. On September 16, 1890, while about to patent his invention in London and to perform his first official public exhibition in New York, Louis Le Prince, director, mysteriously vanished in a train between Dijon and Paris. In 1902, two years after testifying in the Equity 6928 brief, Alphonse Le Prince, also shown in the film and elder son of the inventor, was found dead in New York. He had been murdered.

The second film of Louis Le Prince which also survives to this day is called Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge:

The original film consisted of 20 frames and was shot by Le Prince on a camera of his own design at 20 frame/s on a 60 mm film.

Le Prince’s third surviving film is called Accordion Player

This film is also believed to be from 1888 but is of lower quality and it has not been fully restored. The film is Adolphe Le Prince on his steps playing his accordion.

What is most notable for the films of Le Prince is that this 1888 is three years before Edison and his Kinetoscope system.