Gordon Hendricks (1917–1980) was an American art and film historian. In 1961 Hendricks published ''The Edison Motion Picture Myth'' in which he showed that it was not

Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

who should be attributed with the invention of the first device for cinema screenings, but in fact

William Kennedy Laurie Dickson William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (3 August 1860 – 28 September 1935) was a British inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison. Early life William Kennedy Dickson was born on 3 August 1860 in ...

. The publication of ''Beginnings of the Biograph'' followed shortly after in 1964. In 1966, Hendricks published, ''The Kinetoscope''. These books became milestones in the writing of film history. Hendricks was the first motion picture specialist to lecture in the Sunday series at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. He was the first to show motion pictures in the Great Hall at Cooper Union. In 1975 he authored a work, republished in 2001, about

Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...

, in which he called Muybridge the father of the cinema. Hendricks then began a series on books on painters and photographers. He published works about

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

and

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not ...

. He also published ''The Photographs of Thomas Eakins''. He has 16 volumes of his writings in the Library of Congress. At the time of his death, Hendricks was engaged in writing a book about the art of Thomas Cole. After his death Hendricks bequeathed two major collections to the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

: one about

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...

, the other about film history.

Works

* ''The Edison Motion Picture Myth''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961. 216 pp. * ''Beginnings of the Biograph: The Story of the Invention of the Mutoscope and the Biograph and their Supplying Camera''. New York: Beginnings of the American Film, 1964. 78 pp. * ''Thomas Eakins: His Photographic Works.'' reface by Hendricks.Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1969. 78 pp. The Photographs of Thomas Eakins. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1972. 214 pp. * Albert Bierstadt, 1830-1902 : xhibition catalogSeptember 15-October 10, 1972. New York: M. Knoedler

972 Year 972 ( CMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Emperor John I Tzimiskes divides the Bulgarian territories, recent ...

26 pp. * ABierstadt; an essay and catalogue to accompany a retrospective exhibition of the work of Albert Bierstadt. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum

48 pp. * ''Albert Bierstadt Painter of the American West''. New York: H. N. Abrams

974 Year 974 ( CMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Battle of Danevirke: Emperor Otto II defeats the rebel forces of King Harald I, who ha ...

Published in association with the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art. 360 pp. * ''The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins''. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1974. 367 pp. * ''Eadweard Muybridge: The Father of the Motion Picture''. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1975. 271 pp. * ''The Life and Work of Winslow Homer''. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1979. 345 pp.

External links

Gordon Hendricks Motion Picture History Papers, ca. 1895-1970
1917 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub