This is a guest post by Amy Ribakove, a Young Readers Center intern who is currently pursuing an MLIS at Pratt Institute. This September she begins her first year as the school librarian at International School of Brooklyn.
Special thanks to Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular & Applied Graphic Art in the Prints & Photographs Division for help with this post.
What do kids picture when they hear the word “animation”? Perhaps they think of the technologically advanced computer animated movies and television shows that have become so popular. However, there was animation long before anything digital was invented! In fact, a whole group of innovative people worked to create this type of film. On August 22nd, we celebrate the birthday of one of them, the cartoonist George Herriman, by discussing the history of American animation and by learning how his zany comic strip Krazy Kat became the inspiration for one of the earliest American animated films. So let’s explore what early animation looked like!
Americans first began experimenting with different animation techniques in the early 1900s. They tried clay, puppets, cut-out animation, and pen drawings. We can learn more about these techniques by delving into the Library of Congress collection, Origins of American Animation.
One of the first creators was J Stuart Blackton, and he directed The Enchanted Drawing in 1900. As a leading pioneer in the field of animation, Blackton is sometimes referred to as “the father of American animation.” He used the stop-motion technique, where objects are physically manipulated in tiny increments between individual frames while filming. Observe the movements with your kids in The Enchanted Drawing