1. Porter's childhood and youth have been little examined. Biographical capsules have him growing up in Pittsburgh, consistently misstate the number of siblings, never specify his father's occupation, and generally provide an inaccurate and incomplete picture of his formative experiences.

2. William B. Spies, The Pennsylvania Railroad: Its Origins, Construction, Condition, and Connections (Philadelphia: The Passenger Department, 1875), p. 220.

3. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Ninth Census of the United States, 1870; Tenth Census of the United States, 1880; Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900 . The census report of 1900 lists Mary Clark Porter as having eight children, seven living. A sibling, who probably was born shortly after Edward, must have died in infancy. Connellsville [Pa.] Courier , 23 August 1905.

4. Id., Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; Eighth Census of the United States, 1860 .

5. R. G. Dun and Company, credit ledgers, Pennsylvania, vol. 66: pp. 2 and 356, Baker Library, Harvard Business School (MB-H); J.C. McClenathan et al., Centennial History of the Borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania (Connellsville: Connellsville Area Historical Society, 1906; reprint, Connellsville Area Historical Society, 1974), p. 322.

6. Connellsville Courier , 26 July 1889.

7. Connellsville Courier , 15 April 1892.

8. McClenathan et al., Centennial History , pp. 488-89. In 1871 Samuel Porter also helped to found the Yough National Bank of Connellsville, which soon was the oldest bank in town.

9. Tenth Census of the United States, 1880 .

10. John W. Jordan and James Hadden, eds., Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912), 2: 385.

11. Keystone Courier , 22 June 1883.

12. Keystone Courier , 12 October and 21 December 1883, 22 February 1884, and 15 August 1885.

13. Porter Reilly, Edwin Porter's godson, to Charles Musser, New York City, January 1979.

14. Ibid.; Lewis Jacobs, who interviewed Porter for his Rise of the American Film , to Charles Musser, 1983.

15. Connellsville Courier , 17 April 1896.

16. Connellsville Courier , 27 February and 15 May 1891 and 24 November and 23 December 1892.

17. Keystone Courier , 11 June 1880 and Connellsville Courier , 18 August 1893.

18. Keystone Courier, 9 July 1880.

19. Keystone Courier , 24 February 1882.

20. Connellsville Courier , 30 May 1889.

21. Keystone Courier , 2 January 1885.

22. Connellsville Courier , 30 August 1889.

23. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877; Keystone Courier , 7 November 1879—lasting less than one day and won by the cokers; January 1880—won by the cokers; February 1883—won by the operators; January-February 1886—won by the cokers reestablishing their union; May-June 1887—won by the cokers; August 1889—won by the cokers; February to May 1891—won by the operators (i.e., Henry Frick). See also Jon Amsden and Stephen Brier, "Coal Miners on Strike: The Transformation of Strike Demands and the Formation of a National Union," in Robert Rotberg and Theodore Rabb, eds., Industrialization and Urbanization (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 137-70.

24. Keystone Courier , 29 January 1886.

25. Herbert Gutman writes about similar situations in "Two Lockouts in Pennsylvania, 1873-4," in Work, Culture and Society (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), pp. 321-43.

26. Keystone Courier , 16 February 1883.

27. Keystone Courier , 23 February 1883.

28. Keystone Courier , 29 January 1886.

29. Connellsville Courier , 18 September 1891.

30. Connellsville Courier , 22 May 1891.

31. Connellsville Courier , 26 June 1891.

32. Jacobs, Rise of the American Film , p. 41.

33. Keystone Courier, 16 April 1880.

34. Keystone Courier , 17 December 1880.

35. Keystone Courier , 16 and 23 December 1881.

36. Ibid.

37. "Edwin S. Porter," Moving Picture World (henceforth MPW ), 7 December 1912, p. 961.

38. Keystone Courier , 17 August 1883. The census indicates the two were not closely related. The families did, however, live nearby: Thomas Porter's house was no. 205 and Byron Porter's no. 208 in the local 1880 census. Fragmentary evidence suggests that the two families helped each other out. Byron Porter made his living representing the Terra

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Cotta Casket Company in 1886, a job he may have gained through Porter & Bro. Byron's son George went on an extensive fishing trip with Ed Porter.

39. Keystone Courier , 8 October 1886.

40. Keystone Courier , 26 July 1886.

41. Photographs of a fishing trip attended by Ed Porter, but not by Byron or his son, resulted in a small show at the photographer's art gallery ( Connellsville Courier , 22 August 1890).

42. MPW , 22 April 1911, p. 878.

43. Keystone Courier , 19 January and 15 December 1882; 17 and 31 August 1883; 12 September and 26 December 1884; 4 and 31 December 1883; 19 March, 9 April, 26 May, 19 November, and 17 December 1886; 14 January, 8 April, 17 May, 28 October, and 4 November 1887; 15 February 1888; Connellsville Courier , 26 October, 1 November, and 28 December 1888; 8 March 1889; 29 January 1892.

44. MPW , 7 December 1912, p. 961.

45. New York Clipper (henceforth Clipper ), 4 April 1914, p. 3.

46. "Edward Franklin Albee," National Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Co., 1932), 22: 53; dipping of Albany (New York) newspaper, 19 May 1940, theater files, Albany Public Library.

47. Courier , 28 September 1888.

48. Keystone Courier, 5 September 1884; 22 May, 4 and 31 December 1885.

49. Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age (New York: Hill & Wang, 1982), p. 143.

50. Keystone Courier , 6 March 1885 and 16 March 1888; Connellsville Courier , 7 October 1892.

51. Keystone Courier , 24 December 1886. See Charles Musser with Carol Nelson, High-Class Moving Pictures (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991) for a more elaborate treatment of church-sponsored cultural events.

52. Keystone Courier , 4 January 1884.

53. Keystone Courier , 18 December 1885 and 9 July 1886.

54. Keystone Courier , 25 November and 17 December 1886.

55. Keystone Courier , 12 December 1884.

56. Francis G. Couvares, The Remaking of Pittsburgh: Class and Culture in an Industrializing City, 1877-1919 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984).

57. Tony Keefer to Charles Musser, June 1981.

58. Trachtenberg, Incorporation of America , pp. 64-67.

59. MPW , 7 December 1912, p. 961.

60. Ibid.; Keystone Courier , 23 September 1887.

61. Connellsville Courier , 27 September 1889, 21 February and 7 March 1890.

62. U.S. Patent Office, patent no. 451,798, Charles H. Balsley, Jr. and Edwin M. Porter, Current-Regulator for Electric Lamps, granted S May 1891.

63. Connellsville Courier , 15 May 1891.

64. Connellsville Courier , 12 February 1892.

65. Connellsville Courier , 4 March 1892.

66. U.S. Industrial Commission, Reports , vol. 15, Report on Immigration (19 vols.; Washington, D.C.: 1901-2), pp. 322-25 cited in Thomas Kessner, The Golden Door : Page 498 Italian and Jewish Immigrant Mobility in New York City, 1880-1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 62.

67. Connellsville, Pa. Deed Book , p. 154, courtesy of Tony Keefer.

68. "Edwin Stanton Porter," in National Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Co., 1943), 30: 407-8. See also Robert Sklar, "Edwin Stanton Porter," in Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), pp. 606-7.

69. U.S. Navy Department, enlistment record of Edwin Stanton Porter, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

70. Connellsville Courier , 3 July 1896, p. 4.

71. Cyclopedia of American Biography , 30: 407.