Biography
Born in New York City in 1859 to Scottish immigrant parents, Alexander Black started his career as a self-taught publisher, printing his own magazine starting at the age of 12. He progressed to court reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle, and later became an early adopter and lecturer on photography, pre-cinema innovator, and author of several books.
He is best known for his 1894 “picture play”, a projected and narrated feature-length production projected on a screen, which used a magic lantern and hundred of dissolving slides to create a slow illusion of motion, before the introduction of true motion picture.
He was also the first president of the department of photography at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, traveled and lectured extensively on the Lyceum circuit, and gave the opening remarks at the American PEN Club in 1922. Despite never having completed primary school, he was given an honorary degree from St. Lawrence University late in life.
He and his wife Elizabeth had three children together, raised in Brooklyn. After Elizabeth’s death, Alexander married Edith O’Dell, with whom he spent the remainder of his life until his death in 1940.
Related Archives & Collections
Alexander Black Collection at Princeton University [(Thx) TC109]
The Alexander Black/Edith O’Dell Collection at St. Lawrence University
Alexander Black Papers at the New York Public Library
Alexander Black films preserved at Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley
- Alexander Black Films (1923-28), five films by Alexander Black, the amateur magic lanternist and “picture play” innovator
- Alexander Black: Grandfather of Picture Plays (1946), compilation incorporating footage from a 1919 Paramount Screen Magazine celebrating the 25th anniversary of the motion picture
