Letters: Inventing the Cinema

The 28th December 1895 saw the first public viewing of the cinematograph, a device invented by the Lumiere brothers. These letters are a record of its eruption on the world stage, providing insights not only into the history of the film world, but into technology and the history of Victorian enterprise. Not so much a literary correspondence as a series of excited telephone conversations, the letters were written in the heat of the moment, with an eagerness to communicate the thrill of discovery. They also extend into the 20th century, ending in 1953 with Louis Lumiere's assessment of what he had achieved with an invention he initially perceived as having no commercial potential.