These were the GIFs of the Victorian Age

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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

(via Library of Congress)

Zoetrope Series No. 1, from Milton Bradley Co., 1867

A soldier on horseback

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(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

(via Wikimedia Commons)

Jester

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Rats by Thomas Mann Baynes, 1833

Geometry

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Lions eating children

(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 12)

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.