Exhibitions
The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection

Past Exhibitions

The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection

September 30, 2021–March 12, 2024

Previously presented on Level 3 (L3) in the LAIKA Gallery

The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation

About the Exhibition

The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection explores how the cinematic experience we know today evolved from a long tradition of optical amusements and devices of wonder: from shadow play, peepshows, magic lanterns, zoetropes, and praxinoscopes to the Cinématographe Lumière––the world’s first successful film projector. Visitors to this exhibition experience these marvelous inventions first-hand and take in the wonders of a magic lantern show especially created for this exhibition.

Bull’s Eye Magic Lantern, Steel, paint, and glass, c. 18th century, Great Britain, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Magic Lantern, Johann Falk, Steel, paint, transfer print on ceramic, brass, and glass, 1895, Nuremberg, Germany, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Dutch Peepshow Viewer, Wood, print on paper with hand coloring, and glass, c. 1850, The Netherlands, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Dutch Peepshow Viewer with View, Wood, print on paper with hand coloring, and glass, c. 1850, The Netherlands, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Steam-Driven Praxinoscope with Animation Strips, Ernst Plank, Wood, tin, brass, paint, glass mirror, and cotton string with print on paper strips, c. 1904, Germany, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Eiffel Tower Magic Lantern, Louis Aubert, Tin, paint, steel, and glass, c. 1890, Paris, France, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Brass Lantern with Slide, Ernst Plank, Brass, wood, paint, and glass, c. 1880, Germany, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Animation Disc for Living Pictures Optical Illusion Phenakistiscope, Lebende Bilder, Print on paper with hand coloring, c. 1840, Germany, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Casler-Lumière Kinora and Reel, L. Gaumont et Cie. Wood, glass, and metal with a photo reproduction on paper and metal reel, c. 1900, France, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
Wheel of Life Zoetrope with Animation Strip, Wood, metal, and paint with ink on paper strip, c. 1870, Great Britain, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation
L'orgue de Barbarie, etching, Edmé Bouchardon, 1737, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, photo courtesy the Margaret Herrick Library
Vue perspective de l'Interieur de St. Sulpice de Paris, hand-colored pierced engraving, 18th century, From the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, photo courtesy the Margaret Herrick Library
Vue perspective de l'Interieur de St. Sulpice de Paris, hand-colored pierced engraving, 18th century, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, photo courtesy the Margaret Herrick Library
Running Horse, projecting praxinoscope glass strip for animated moving picture system, Charles-Émile Reynaud, ca. 1890, Courtesy Margaret Herrick Library
Peacock Sciopticon, produced by the Pettibone Brothers Manufacturing Company, Metal on wood base, America, c. 1895, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Richard Balzer
Triunial Magic Lantern, produced by Chatham Paxton, Wood, brass, and glass, 1891, Great Britain, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Richard Balzer
Bull’s Eye Magic Lantern, Steel, paint, and glass, c. 18th century, Great Britain, from the Richard Balzer Collection, gift of Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures, ©Academy Museum Foundation

Author, documentary photographer, organizational consultant, and passionate explorer of the pre-history of cinema, Richard Balzer (1944–2017) collected pre-cinematic devices for over 40 years. Fascinated by the history of visual entertainment, he amassed more than 9,000 pre-cinema objects from Europe, Asia, and America dating as far back as the 17th century. Today, his collection is considered the world’s most prominent on pre-cinematic objects. Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Balzer’s widow, generously donated her husband’s remarkable collection to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library.

The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzar Collection is located on Level 3. It is curated by Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Exhibitions Curator Jessica Niebel, former Assistant Curator Ana Santiago, Assistant Curator Nicholas Barlow, and Curatorial Assistant Esme Douglas.