Modern GIFs may make the Internet a more animated place, but they're no match for the sublime weirdness of 19th-century animations. While some are graceful mini-movies of people and animals, others seem pulled from some truly surreal nightmares.
Everything you wanted to know about phenakistoscope, zoetrope, and praxinoscope
Who's Knocking At The Door, a French zoetrope from the 1870s
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A Couple Waltzing, by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893
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(via Library of Congress)
Zoetrope Series No. 1, from Milton Bradley Co., 1867
A soldier on horseback
(via Digital Media For Artists Archive)
Slip To The Water
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Praxinoscope animation by Émile Reynaud, 1877-1879
Comets and Planets
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(via Weird GIF)
Dancing and Jumping
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Athletes – Boxing by Eadweard Muybridge, c. 1893
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(via Wikimedia Commons)
Jester
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Rats by Thomas Mann Baynes, 1833
Geometry
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Lions eating children
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(via Weird GIF)
Eaten by a head
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Frightening phenakistoscopes
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(via Colossal)
Cyclist
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(via North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics)
McLean's Optical Illusions, a series of 12 phenakistoscope discs, published in 1833.
Mule Bucking and Kicking,by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893 (zoopraxiscope)
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(via Wikimedia Commons)
The Frogeater
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The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, by Eadward Muybridge, 1881, and some of his other works, often demonstrated with a zoetrope
A Horse-back Somersault, by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893 (zoopraxiscope)
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(via Wikimedia Commons)
Village Blacksmiths, by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893 (zoopraxiscope)
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(via Wikimedia Commons)
Baboon Walking and Buffalo Galloping, by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893 (zoopraxiscope)
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(via Wikimedia Commons 1 – 2)
Columbian Exposition Horse Race (Galloping), by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893 (zoopraxiscope)
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(via Wikimedia Commons)
Monkeys Climbing a Cocoa Palm, by Eadweard Muybridge, 1893 (zoopraxiscope)
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(via Wikipedia Commons)
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The GIFs are phenakistoscopes from The Richard Balzer Collection, except when noted otherwise.