History of Rule of Thirds

[AdamMac12]

I am doing a speech on Adding Bing and Bang to Your Home Videos...
I'm doing a basic outline of equipment, camera features, shot planning, shot composition, and lighting. I was going to mention the rule of thirds as a general rule of thumb. Does anyone know the history of the rule of thirds or perhaps the origin. I have to cite all of my sources..

[Dave]

I don't know about the exact origin of this rule, but I know a lot of people claim it comes from the "Golden Mean". This is a blending of math and art to produce a pleasing composition. A detailed analysis can be found here:
http://community.middlebury.edu/~har...oldenMean.html

Whether or not the rule of thirds really does derive directly from the golden mean, I can't say. But I think it is relevant and at least it's an interesting historical perspective on composition.