From: Paul C Spehr <spehr@embarqmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: Motion Picture Catalogs
To: Dan Streible <dan.streible@nyu.edu>
Cc: Mark J. Williams, Mike Mashon

I’ve attached 5 frames from [Dickson Greeting].

This is the first film in what became the lasting format, to be seen by the public. On May 20, 1891, after dining with Mrs. Edison, the presidents of women’s clubs came to Edison’s lab and were shown this film on a prototype of the Kinetoscope — supposedly with a [phonograph] recording accompanying it. These images were attached to Edison’s patent application the following August. Gordon Hendricks found them later and called them a most important find. But someone put them into the wrong folder after they were photocopied so they were lost again.

NARA [U.S. National Archives and Records Administration] found them a few years ago and sent me a copy.

If you play them in sequence you will get some semblance of motion.”

— Paul Spehr

p.s.   Here is the LOC online catalog record:

[Dickson greeting] Edison Laboratory; producer, W.K.L. Dickson, William Heise. [1891] United States.
viewing print 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 6 ft.) : si., b&w ; 35 mm.
FYA 1278 (viewing print).
Variant LC title: Early Edison camera tests. https://lccn.loc.gov/00694118 

And he is the downloadable LOC MOV file. 4014b