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Herman Casler and Harry Marvin sparring for the Biograph

Herman Casler and Harry Marvin "sparring" for the Biograph camera at, possibly, the rear of the C. E. Lipe shop at 208 South Geddes Street in Syracuse, New York, in June 1895. This may be the earliest Biograph subject extant, and the first actually shot with the first camera. Background details eliminate the East North Canal Street Canastota address and appear also to eliminate a James Mahan Machine Shop site: the high window in the right rear is inexplicable from contemporary maps, as is also the board fence. From a previously unpublished photograph in the author's collection.

HENDRICKS Gordon, Beginnings of the Biograph, New York, The Beginnings of the American Film, 1964, illustration nº 4.