In 1892, Edison and a member of his experimental staff, W.K.L. Dickson, invented a motion picture camera with a peephole viewing device, called a Kinetoscope. They began showing films the next year. Edison constructed the world's first film production studio, which he named the Black Maria, near his West Orange, New Jersey, laboratory. It is shown in this historic photograph. The roof of the building, which was covered in tar paper, lifted to allow sunlight into the black interior. This resource is part of the Thomas Edison Collection.