Eadweard Muybridge left Kingston upon Thames in 1852 to go to America to make his fortune. He lived for a short time in New York, but then moved to San Francisco where his interest in photography took off. When he died in 1904 he bequeathed his equipment and prints.

There is extensive information about Muybridge and his work on the Kingston Museum website. Of particular interest is a huge panorama of San Francisco, showing what the city looked like before the 1909 earthquake. The panorama includes a view of the famous "Spite Fence" - an enormously tall wall built around a house, blocking out all its natural light, in an effort to make the owner sell.

The San Francisco Panorama

A view of the Spite Fence