5 Firsts in Film History That Happened at the Black Maria Studio

Before Hollywood had studios, stars, or even movie theaters, filmmaking meant to be shown to the masses took shape inside a small building covered in tar paper in West Orange, New Jersey. Known as the Black Maria, Thomas Edison’s purpose-built motion picture studio became the first testing ground for ideas that would define cinema itself.

Inside this unusual structure, Edison and his team produced films that were not just early. They were firsts.

The first copyrighted motion picture, 1894

In January 1894, Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze was filmed inside the Black Maria. It became the earliest surviving motion picture to be registered for copyright in the United States.

This moment mattered far beyond the sneeze itself. It formally recognized film as intellectual property, laying the foundation for the legal and commercial structure of the motion picture industry.

The first commercial advertising film, 1897

In 1897, Edison’s Black Maria studio produced Admiral Cigarette, one of the earliest known film commercials created explicitly to promote a product, in this case Admiral Cigarettes.

Filmed inside the Black Maria and copyrighted on August 5, 1897, the short features costumed characters and branded imagery designed to associate the product with broad appeal. Early rooftop projections and public showings helped the film function as a brand advertisement long before television existed.

The first woman to appear in motion pictures, 1890s

During the 1890s, dancer Annabelle Moore appeared in a series of short films produced inside the Black Maria, including the Serpentine Dance films.

These performances are among the earliest known films to feature a woman as the central on-screen subject. They helped establish performance, movement, and visual spectacle as essential elements of cinema.

The first on-screen kiss, 1896

In 1896, audiences were stunned by The Kiss, a short film produced at the Black Maria that showed a couple sharing a brief kiss on screen.

Though tame by today’s standards, the film sparked outrage and fascination at the time. It proved that motion pictures could provoke emotional and cultural reactions, not just document events.

The first experiments combining sound and motion, 1894–1895

Between 1894 and 1895, Edison and his team conducted some of the earliest experiments pairing motion pictures with recorded sound inside the Black Maria. Using phonographs alongside film exhibition, they explored whether moving images and audio could work together.

While limited by the technology of the era, these tests anticipated talking pictures decades before sound films became standard.

The first special effect in film history, 1895

In 1895, The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots was filmed inside the Black Maria and introduced what is widely regarded as the first special effect in motion picture history.

During filming, the camera was stopped, the actor portraying Mary was replaced with a mannequin, and filming resumed. When projected, the transition appeared seamless, creating the illusion of an on-screen beheading. This stop-camera substitution demonstrated that film could manipulate reality, not just record it.

Why these firsts still matter

Each of these milestones occurred before California'a Hollywood existed as a filmmaking capital. They happened inside New Jersey's Black Maria, where the rules of cinema were still being invented through trial, error, and experimentation.

From copyright law to performance, from sound experimentation to visual effects, the Black Maria shaped film as both an art form and an industry. Many techniques first tested there remain foundational to filmmaking today.

You can visit a full-scale replica of the Black Maria at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey, and step inside the studio where film history was made.