page_title: Antonia Dickson
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Antonia Dickson / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Cover illustration by William Kennedy Dickson for the 1895 book History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph
context_page_description: Antonia Isabella Eugénie Dickson was a writer, lecturer, music composer, and concert pianist. With her brother, William Kennedy Dickson, she authored the History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph, considered the first book on the history of film, and a biography of Thomas Edison.
context_section_description: Antonia Dickson was a classically-trained concert pianist, considered a child prodigy. At 12 years old, she performed with an orchestra in Leipzig. She trained in conservatories in Leipzig and Stuttgart, and then performed in France, Scotland, and at the Crystal Palace Park in London. At 17, she began writing for Chambers' Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, and remained a regular contributor throughout her life.
  Dickson passed music exams given by Trinity College London and, in January of 1879, she was made an associate of the College of Organists. At the time, she was the only woman to pass the exam and the third woman to be made an associate.
  Dickson moved to the United States with her mother, sister, and brother in May of 1879. Her mother died about two months after they arrived. The siblings settled in Petersburg, Virginia, where Dickson gave a concert in 1882. They then moved to New York, where William gained employment with Thomas Edison in 1883.
  In the 1890s, Dickson and her brother collaborated on various projects. She wrote a poem, "Indian Lullaby to the Pale Faces," that he illustrated.: 281 In 1894, they co-authored The Life and Inventions of Thomas A. Edison, and in 1895, they co-authored History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph, considered the first book on the history of film.
  Dickson also lectured on music in 1894 and 1895, first at her home and then at the Shepard School of Music in Orange, New Jersey. She published one lecture from a series of twelve on the paintings of great masters in 1896.: 280-1 
  Dickson never married, and lived with William and his wife Lucie until she became ill in 1903. Antonia Dickson died on August 29, 1903.: 598-9
caption: Cover of History of the Kinetograph, Kinetoscope, and Kinetophonograph by W.K.L. Dickson and Antonia Dickson
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