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Artists

Harold Edgerton

Photographer
American·b. 1903
Known for:
stroboscopic high-speed photography; the milk drop crown
Education:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BS, electrical engineering, 1925); MIT (SM, 1927; ScD, 1931)

Harold Edgerton was an MIT electrical engineer who developed the modern electronic stroboscope and used it to photograph events invisible to the human eye - the crown of a milk drop, a bullet passing through a playing card, the moment of impact in a golf swing. His images, published in Life magazine from the 1930s onward, made the physics of motion visible and created a photographic genre of scientific revelation that has had no successor of comparable technical originality. He cofounded the company that became EG&G, which manufactured stroboscopic equipment for industry and defense.

Harold Edgerton's Gear List(1)

Graflex Speed Graphic
Graflex Speed Graphic

Graflex

Connection note

Edgerton used modified 4x5 cameras with his custom electronic stroboscope for high-speed photography. His apparatus is documented in "Stopping Time" (1987) and in the MIT Museum collection.

Product description

The Speed Graphic was the dominant press camera in America from the 1930s through the 1960s, used by newspaper photographers for its large 4×5 inch negatives, focal-plane shutter, and compatibility with flash synchronization. Its side-mounted rangefinder and rugged construction suited deadline-driven work in all conditions.

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Last updated March 20, 2026