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- A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
- A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
- Here is a picture that is extremely laughable. An old man is indulging in a dream, which dream is demonstrated in the picture. It shows him in a restaurant partaking of a sumptuous meal and a bottle of wine with a soubrette. There is a sudden awakening, however, and in an apparently disgusted mood, he finds himself in his own bed and his wife endeavoring to induce him to get up and build the fire.
- The first filmed version of Frankenstein. The young doctor discovers the secret of life, which he uses to create a perfect human. Things do not go according to plan.
- Performing on what looks like a small wooden stage, wearing a dress with a hoop skirt and white high-heeled pumps, Carmencita does a dance with kicks and twirls, a smile always on her face.
- This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.
- A fireman rushes into a carriage to rescue a woman from a house fire. He breaks the windowpanes and carries the woman to safety; after dangerous and uncertain moments he also saves the woman's son.
- The execution of Topsy, a female elephant, in a publicity stunt advertising the opening of Luna Park on Coney Island. Topsy was originally owned by Forepaugh Circus where she killed a drunken spectator who burned the tip of her trunk with a cigar. She was sold to Sea Lion Park in 1902 which was then sold to new owners who turned it into Luna Park. After they decided they could no longer handle her, the owners of Luna Park announced they would hang Topsy, leading to an outcry by the ASPCA. The owners then decided they would electrocute the elephant, with a backup plan of feeding her cyanide-laced carrots and strangling her with a cable.
- A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out?
- In a medium close-up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.
- A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.
- This short film, one of the first to use camera tricks, depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
- Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around.
- One of W.K.L. Dickson's laboratory workers horses around for the camera.
- A man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the first motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.
- The fiend faces the spectacular mind-bending consequences of his free-wheeling rarebit binge.
- An athlete swings Indian clubs.
- Film "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" based on the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.
- Much to our amazement, an elegant and masterful illusionist detaches his own head effortlessly from his shoulders for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.
- A burglar is arrested for a murder. He is condemned to death. Before his execution the murderer dreams of his past, of how he was a bank clerk, then turned to crime. The criminal is then taken out of his cell, and a moment later is executed.
- The story of Ononko's Vow is a pretty love tale through which is intertwined the story of an Indian's fidelity to his promise. The prologue takes place during the course of the Bloody Brook Massacre when an Indian chief, one of the rescuing party, saves a young Puritan, Jonathan Smith, from the tomahawk of a hostile Indian. Ungagook is the name of this chief, and he is accompanied by his little ten-year-old son, Ononko. Ungagook unknown to Smith receives his death wound in rescuing the latter. Together the chief and his son come to the house of Smith and as they see him safely to his door the colonist's young wife expresses her thanks to Ungagook. The chief makes a gesture which is intended to convey the Idea that he thinks lightly of what he has done, and immediately thereafter betrays the fact that he is mortally hurt. He expires in the home of Smith, but before doing so has his little son Ononko promise fidelity to the family in whose house his spirit goes to the Great Manitou. Twenty-eight years later we see how Ononko, now a vigorous young brave, keeps the pledge which he made his father in the years gone by. Deerfield has been sacked. Jonathan Smith and his daughter Ruth, who has just been affianced to Ebenezer Dow, are driven before the tomahawks and flintlocks of the Indians. Dow has gone for assistance, managing to evade the raiders, and the rescuing party comes from the settlement below. Jonathan Smith is saved by a trapper, but his daughter Ruth is among the colonists who are being taken on across the meadow toward Pine Hill and thence to Canada. Ononko has seen the light in the sky from the village below and has hastened with the relieving party of colonists and Narragansett Indians to the scene. He enters the room where the colonists had stoutly defended themselves but where most of them were massacred. Failing to find his friend he seeks him without, and meets him as he is leaving the awful scene of carnage. Learning from the father that his daughter is among the retreating Indians, Ononko promises to seek for her and bring her back to the grieving old man. The story ends in his successfully carrying out his promise. After the rescue, which is accomplished in a most thrilling manner, we see the young colonist and his bride-to-be approaching the edge of the settlement under the guidance of the tall young chief of the Narragansetts. Behind them walks their friend, the trapper. Ononko stands at the edge of the forest and points toward the settlement below. The three others pass him and turn to bid him good-bye, first asking him to proceed with them into the village. Ononko refuses. Why? Perhaps because in the breast of the handsome savage some gentle thought of the girl he has saved has entered: but his nobility of character permits him to entertain the thought only for a fleeting moment. When Ruth was in captivity she was protected from the snow only by the woolen dress she wore. On the homeward march Ononko had given her his blanket to keep her warm. As he bids Ebenezer and his pretty fiancée farewell Ruth offers Ononko his blanket, which she is wearing. The young chief prettily presents it to Ebenezer and places it across the shoulders of the girl. After accepting the gift the young people go to their home, their trapper friend accompanying them. Ononko stands contemplating the settlement below him. What his thoughts may be the observer is left to imagine. At the finish of the film we again see Mr. Sheldon bidding good-bye to the two young people who have been visiting his town.
- "A glove contest between trained cats. A very comical and amusing subject, and is sure to create a great laugh." (by Edison Films)
- A man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.
- The very first American film shown to public audiences and the press. It depicts William K.L. Dickson taking off his hat and greeting the audience.
- Right in front of our very eyes, two attractive and feminine women metamorphose into two professional wrestlers who begin a no-holds-barred wrestling match.
- The earliest extant sound film. William K.L. Dickson stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two men dance in the foreground. This film was made to demonstrate a new Thomas Edison machine, the Kinetophone. These machines were Kinetoscope peepshow viewers mated with Thomas Edison wax cylinder phonographs. But the Kinetophone never caught on and this film was never released. The film still exists, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost.
- Based on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Eliza, a slave who has a young child, pleads with Tom, another slave, to escape with her. Tom does not leave, but Eliza flees with her child. After getting some help to escape the slave traders who are looking for her, she then must try to cross the icy Ohio River if she wants to be free. Meanwhile, Tom is sold from one master to another, and his fortunes vary widely.
- A winner and sure to please. In front of one of the largest newspaper offices is a hot air shaft through which immense volumes of air are forced by a blower. Ladies in crossing this shaft often have their clothes slightly disarranged. A young man is escorting a young lady and talking very earnestly. They walk slowly along until they stand directly over the air shaft. The young lady's skirts are suddenly raised to an almost unreasonable height, greatly to her horror and much to the amusement of the newsboys, bootblacks, and passersby.
- Eugen Sandow, who claims to be the strongest man in the world, appears in the Edison Company's film studio.
- Smith casts his wife as a sluttish housewife who is mutilated by lighting her oven with paraffin.
- A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.
- A family is terrified when an eagle carries off its young child.
- Based on the story by Charles Dickens: Ebenezer Scrooge is well known for his harsh, miserly ways, until he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, and then by three other spirits.
- A poor young girl tries to sell matches in a snowstorm. After being robbed by bullies, she lights matches which illuminate visions of a far happier Christmas than the one she faces.
- A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.
- Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of the famous fairy tale story of Jack and his magic beanstalk. Borrowing on cinematographic methods reminiscent of 'Georges Melies', Porter uses animation, double exposure, and trick photography to illustrate the fairy's apparitions, Jack's dream, and the fast growing beanstalk.
- Two members of a vigilante group known as 'The White Caps' post a warning sign on a man's home. When the man comes home, he tears down the sign, and then proceeds to abuse his wife both verbally and physically. As soon as she can get away from him, the wife leaves home with her child to find a place of refuge. When the vigilantes find out about this, they arm themselves with rifles and immediately go to confront the abusive husband.
- Annabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dance routines. She uses her dance steps and her long, flowing skirts to create a variety of visual patterns.
- An old proprietor is startled by the sudden appearance of a skull. Just as he draws back from the uncanny object, the doors of a mediaeval wardrobe fly back and a hand prods him with a sword. He turns to confront his assailant when it vanishes, and at the same instant the skull flies to the other end of the room. He clutches at the skull, when it turns into the half form of a girl from the waist up, suspended in mid-air. As he gazes in amusement, the other half of the girl, fully dressed from her waist down, walks across the room, and the two halves of the figure join, making a girl complete. In an amorous fashion the old man folds his arms around the girl's waist with the intention of stealing a kiss, but the girl immediately changes into an old woman, who grins in evident delight at the old man's discomfort. In great anger he throws her into the wardrobe and locks the door. Unseen by him, the woman has again become a girl. A great effect is here produced. Through the doors, which are solid and closed, the form of the girl appears through the woodwork. Hastily opening the door, the old man is then confronted by an Egyptian mummy. Other strange things happen. As the pawnbroker flies from the room a large and grotesque head arises from the smoke and slowly advances toward the spectators. Larger and larger the head grows until it fills the entire picture, and appears as though it would swallow the whole audience. A most laughable and mystifying scene.
- Two gamecocks fight in the Edison Company film studio. This feature was remade later in the same year, with additional detail added.
- The adventures of an inattentive man. He's at his kitchen table, reading. A woman brings his hat and points to the clock. He continues reading and pours coffee into his hat. He leaves, still reading, trips over a servant who's on her hands and knees cleaning the walk. He walks through jump-roping girls, runs into a mule, walks into the only other person on an empty street, and then walks into the path of a steamroller. Two cyclists approach his flattened body. Out come their air pumps, and soon our genial hero has set off again, nose in his book.
- An early adaptation of the Ali Baba tale.
- Here we present a picture that simply convulses an audience with laughter. The scene opens in the bedroom of a hotel. A traveler appears, evidently a "little worse for wear." After stretching and yawning, he proceeds to disrobe. He throws off his coat and vest, but to his surprise and anguish, he suddenly finds himself clothed in a continental uniform. He throws this off in anger, but immediately a policeman's costume flies on him. This is in turn thrown aside in great rage and he finds himself clothed in a soldier's uniform. At last, thinking himself successful, he makes for the bed and finds a skeleton complacently resting on his pillow. The bed suddenly disappears, leaving him seated on the floor, and great quantities of bed clothes rain down from the ceiling. The picture ends leaving the audience simply convulsed in laughter.
- This early docudrama shows Auburn Prison and recreates the electrocution of Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley of the United States. Some versions offer additional footage at the beginning which shows McKinley on the day of his assassination followed by scenes from his funeral.
- Two men wearing boxing gloves prepare to spar in the Edison Company studio.
- Marguerite is seated before the fireplace, Faust standing by her side. Mephistopheles enters and offers his sword to Faust, commanding him to behead the fair Marguerite. Faust refuses, whereupon Mephistopheles draws the sword across the throat of the lady and she suddenly disappears and Faust is seated in her place.
- Gulliver washes ashore on Lilliput, the inhabitants of which are no more than six inches tall. He later travels to Brobdingnag, a country populated by giants.
- The cook has trouble lighting the stove, so she adds kerosene, with explosive results.
- A vignette of a barroom/liquor-store in the West, no plot per se. However this short is usually regarded as the first "Western" in the sense that it depicts a western scene.
- An old maid is walking about the studio while the photographer is getting his camera ready. She first looks at a hanger, which immediately falls from the wall, not being able to stand her gaze. Then she looks at the clock, and her face causes it to fall to the floor with a crash. She then walks over to the mirror, which suddenly cracks in several places. The photographer then poses her. Just as he is to press the button the camera explodes with a great puff of smoke, completely destroying the camera and demolishing the studio. The picture finishes up with the old maid tipping back in her chair and losing her balance, displaying a large quantity of fancy lace goods. A sure winner.