Samuel W. Bridgham was a talented amateur photographer most active in the 1890s, as well as the one-time president of the notable New York Camera Club. His early photographs of lightning are extensively reproduced, and were often hailed as some of the earliest studies of the natural phenomenon, though we now know there were plenty of prior examples. This lantern slide was likely produced for a lecture, possibly given by Bridgham himself.

Along with producing several compelling lightning photos, Bridgham photographed a number of beautifully-detailed floral studies. He was described in a New York Herald article as "the animal photographer extraordinary to the club" who secured the title by photographing chickens which the paper called "one of the finest pictures of fowls that have ever been made."