William Abner Eddy

William was an American accountant and journalist famous for his photographic and meteorological experiments with kites.

William was born in New York City and graduated from the University of Chicago where he studied to be an accountant.
Following graduation, he returned to the metropolitan New York area to work in his profession.
Early on in his career he was employed by the New York Herald, a major and highly respected newspaper of the day.

On May 30, 1895, Eddy took the first aerial photograph in the Americas.

In August of 1896, Eddy arrived with twenty-two of his kites with the intention of taking aerial photographs of Boston by suspending a camera in the air and working the shutter remotely from the ground. Mr. Eddy was already credited with taking the first aerial kite photograph in the United States in Bayonne, N.J., on May 30, 1895.

On August 1, 1898 Eddy filed an application to patent his "Eddy Kite". On March 27, 1900, Patent no. 646375 outlining and certifying the characteristics of the kite design and the intellectual, manufacturing and distribution property rights to William Abner Eddy was approved by the U.S. Patent Office. [Eden, Maxwell - The Magnificent Book of Kites - 1998 ed. Page 149]