Original group of three original silver gelatin photographs from the important American photographer's series Multiple Exposures of a Swinging Ball (1958–1961). Some very light silvering; overall in very fine condition. Each 9.25 x 7.25 inches (24.3 x 19 cm), matted to 14 x 11 inches (35.5 x 28 cm). From the series published in Berenice Abbott: Documenting Science, printed by the photographer and given originally to MIT physicist Dr. Elbert Little who assisted with the project, subsequently obtained from his family.

Berenice Abbott, primarily known for her interwar portraits of New Yorkers and 1930's images of New York skyscrapers, was also a pioneering figure in science photography. After working in London and Paris—where she studied with Man Ray and photographed Jean Cocteau, James Joyce and others—and creating her iconic 1930's images of New York, Abbott became photographic editor of Science Illustrated in 1944. In the late 1950's, she began to work as a photographer at MIT with scientists including Dr. Elbert P. Little, from whose collection the present set of photographs was acquired. Abbott provided photographs for the core textbook Physics, used by millions of high-schoolers from the 1960's on. Her innovative and beautiful scientific photographs bring to light otherwise invisible phenomena: waves, parabolae, ellipses, force, and energy. Many were created with the help of photographic apparatus she designed herself. Photographs from her series Multiple Exposure of a Swinging Ball are held by the Metropolitan Museum and many other important institutions.