Edison Studios

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

A poor young boy goes on a field trip and dreams of escaping to a land beyond the sunset.

Two groups of young women get into a pair of horse-drawn carts, and go off for a straw ride through the snowy streets. As they pass by a group of children, the children throw snowballs at the riders, and they and other persons begin to join in the fun. Then one of the carts tips on its side, spilling some of its occupants into the snow. Everyone soon decides that they enjoy playing in the snow even more than riding.

Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.

Ruth Hoagland grows up on the Florida Keys with no companion other than her father, a half-witted fisherman who spends most of his time hunting for buried treasure. Vacationing yachtsman Bob Winthrop and Ruth fall in love, but Winthrop returns to New York, and after a year, has forgotten Ruth. After finding two chests in a cave, Ruth locates her father unconscious from a fall. She goes to the mainland for help, but returns with the Reverend Josiah Arbuthnot and Dr. William Strong, to find her father dead. Strong, out of kindness, offers to marry her, but Ruth declines, sure that Winthrop will return.

The story begins with the finding of a wonderful peach which comes floating down a small stream and is brought to shore by a little Japanese woman, who takes it to her home. It there transpires that she and her husband are still mourning the loss of a baby, and the wonderful peach when it is cut brings healing to their sorrow, for as the father's hands separate the two parts of the luscious fruit, between them miraculously appears the figure of a tiny baby.

"Vanity Fair" is a historical drama, based on the classic English novel written by William Thackeray, featuring Shirley Mason. Shirley Mason was 15 y.o. and played the role of the young Becky Sharp. Directors obviously took notice of her performance, because in 1917 she appeared in 17 feature films, in many of them playing the star role.

Lizette loves Jean but a 10,000 franc dowry insisted upon by Jean's father is keeping them apart. Paul, Lizette's "black sheep" brother, begs that she gives him her saved money so he can increase it for her - at the gaming table!! He does win but there are a few who are determined he shall not reach home with his money. Paul also suffers from a bad heart and with the stress he feels from being set upon, he takes refuge at an inn. He seals the money up in an envelope addressed to Lizette Rouget but dies before he can deliver it safely to her. Lizette is now destitute, Jean having long ago deserted her but the ghost of Paul continues to haunt the inn's bedroom to guard the money from "unworthy hands".

William K.L. Dickson and William Heise shake hands in this early experimental film.

Opens with a woman posing on a pedestal, dressed in a white body leotard with a sash tied at her hips. Marshall continues with various feminine poses, reminiscent of classic Greek statuary, to accentuate her figure. Film cuts to Treloar posed on the bare stage without a pedestal. He wears brief leopard-skin trunks or short tunic, wrist bands, and Roman-looking laced sandals. His poses accentuate the muscular development of his upper body, particularly that of his arms, and include movements that make the muscles jump. Treloar finishes with a slight nod to the camera.

Well-to-do Mr. and Mrs. Gilton live next door to a large family, the Biltons, that struggles to make ends meet. Despite their desire to be friendly, Mr. Gilton is frequently irritated by his neighbors, insisting that they stay out of his yard, and blaming them for anything that goes wrong. During the holiday season, the differences between the two families become even clearer. Mrs. Gilton wants to do something to help the Biltons, but Mr. Gilton will take a lot of convincing.

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

Our presidential hunter runs across the landscape and falls down in the snow, gets up with his rifle, and gazes upward at a treed animal which isn't in the camera's view. He fires a shot into the tree, then leaps on the ground to grab the fallen prey, a domestic cat, finishing it off with wild blows of his hunting knife while his companions, a photographer and a press agent, record the event that will be reported far and wide as a manly moment. Teddy then rides out of the forest followed by two companions afoot, never mind that they all originally arrived afoot. Perhaps it was funnier in its day than it is now, but apparently shooting cats was regarded as funny in those days. The larger point was to use a minor whimsy as a political criticism, in this case of Teddy Roosevelt's easy manipulations of the press. It was based on two frames of a political cartoon that had appeared in the paper a mere week before the film was made.

The Battle of Trafalgar is a possibly lost 1911 American silent docudrama film that portrayed the 1805 victory of Great Britain’s Royal Navy over the combined naval forces of France and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. The death of British Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson in that decisive sea battle was also depicted in this "one-reeler", which was directed by J. Searle Dawley and produced by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. The film starred Sydney Booth with Herbert Prior, James Gordon, Charles Ogle, and Laura Sawyer in supporting roles.

Cud McGiven applies for employment in a Bowery restaurant. The restaurant is conducted by a German, who engages Cud. Whenever Cud finds himself alone in the pantry he exercises his mania for juggling plates with disastrous results to the crockery. Every time the proprietor bears a crash he is Johnny-on-the-spot and takes out his little book to jot down the damage and charge it to Cud. At last the proprietor loses all patience and decides to discharge Cud. Accordingly he summons him to his private office and demands a settlement of the broken dishes and spoiled food. Cud is unable to see the situation this way at all. The disagreement waxes hot and furious and Cud in revenge breaks all the dishes in the pantry. The riot brings the frightened guests to their feet, where they stand spellbound at seeing a half of the waiters flee before the burly Cud, who is flinging plates after them with the accuracy of a baseball pitcher.

"Nothing new, but an old thing done over again and done well. Some one has attempted to describe a kiss as "something made of nothing," but this is not one of that kind, but one of those old fashioned "home made" kind that sets the whole audience into merriment and motion, and has always proven a popular subject. It is very fine photographically and an exhibit is not complete without it." -Edison film catalog.

A man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the second motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...