Knights Templar Parade in Pittsburg, USA

The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company's camera team filming the Jim Jeffries-Tom Sharkey world heavyweight boxing championship, 1899

Knights Templar Parade (1898)

A Biograph cameraman shot at least a dozen views of the Knights Templar parade, in Pittsburgh on 11 October 1898.

"...Taken at Pittsburgh, Pa., during the triennial conclave of the Knights Templar in the fall of 1898. The commanderies are among the best known in the United States, and all have a very high record for proficiency in drill, and for the high standing of their members. This picture shows the St. Bernard Commandery in the competition drill at Schenley Park." Written by AMB Picture Catalogue

Usually one minute in length, Biograph films were gathered together in programmes of about twenty minutes and shown in variety theatres and music halls.

Other early documentaries survive. A Knights Templar Street Parade, Philadelphia (1903); Harry Davis's footage of a Pittsburgh Knights Templar parade on 22 May 1906, and the Miles brothers, "actuality" of a Shriners Conclave at Los Angeles on May 1907. There are others.

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Views of the Knights Templar Parade in Pittsburg, USA. St. Bernard Commandery, Chicago, October 1898. Black and White, Silent : Chicago, Illinois, USA. American Mutoscope Company. Biograph production number 813.

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