This is a continuation of the series of photos I took while at the George Eastman House. Hopefully you’re not sick of it yet!
I love this You Press The Button. . . display which shows and describes what a 19th century photographer had to go through:
Here’s a close up of the writing so you can read what George Eastman went through in a photo shoot:
Can you imagine lugging all of this stuff around!
Makes me appreciate the old photos even more! In a hallway there was a display of cameras, with this sign - please don’t squint to read it, I’ll make it bigger in the next photo:
Here’s a closer view of the words so you can read if you would like:
This is a really cool long display of old cameras - this photo only shows a portion of the cameras in this display:
I leave you tonight with this old ad for a Kodak Brownie:
Seeing all of this makes me appreciate my digital camera so much more! Wait until you see what else I have for you!
March 1, 2007 at 12:33 am
We’ve come a long way, baby!
You know, I actually own a Brownie! (My Dad passed it down to me when I was 10.)
March 1, 2007 at 6:43 am
Wow, I can’t even imagine it…. such dedication to the craft. We have indeed come a long way. Fascinating stuff Pam!
March 1, 2007 at 8:24 am
Pam,
To work so hard for a photo…what a passionate man! Have it heard myself and others whine about their camera not focusing fast enough or disliking our instruction manuals? Is that all we have to complain about?
Thanks for the history of Kodak. I remember the Brownie before instamatics and polaroids! Did I get the sequence right? I wonder what happened to that camera…
March 1, 2007 at 9:22 am
I can’t believe all that equipment! And I thought that I had alot of equpment! Technology is wonderful! Such a wonderful series my friend! I must go read it again!
March 1, 2007 at 9:30 am
Susan - We sure have! That’s cool you have an old Brownie! I have photos taken with an old Brownie, but not the Brownie itself. From what I understand you could take 100 photos then send it the whole thing into Kodak, and you’d get your camera back reloaded for another 100 shots and of course your photos.
I have another camera passed down from my grandparents that I need to investigate here soon, and I’ll post a photo.
Jayne - we sure have. I can’t imagine carrying around a bunch of chemicals. No wonder I see lines in old photos - it was the chemicals probably not be laid down properly.
Mary - Oh, I know. Makes me want to go hug all of the people that took photos back then (if they were alive). I know, I feel like such a whimp compared to what they had to put up with back then!
I don’t remember the sequence of cameras exactly. I thought my parents had a polaroid then an instamatic, but I could be wrong. Those polaroids were a pain in the rear, too.
Mon@rch - I know! I thought of you when I saw all of this! The birds they may have tried to capture would have migrated by the time they could get things set up! I *love* technology (most of the time)!
March 5, 2007 at 11:36 am
Dear Pam,
THANK YOU for sharing your images of George Eastman House with the world (and your devoted readers).
Please allow me to answers two questions, one posted here and one from a late entry:
The Kodak camera of 1888 was loaded for 100 exposures. That camera cost $25, which was about six-weeks wages at the time. Processing was an additional $10. While it did mark the start of mass photography, the camera was expensive for most yet easy to use, sold using Eastman’s clever slogan, “You Press the Button, We Do The Rest.”
The Brownie of 1900, however, truly marked the birth of popular photographer, as it sold for $1 and film for 15 cents. Please note, however, the camera was loaded with only six exposures. Yet, it was a quality camera and a hit with children and adults alike. Eastman knew children were the future of photography, naming the camera after an elfin storybook character created by British author Palmer Cox. He included children in advertisements and noted in ad copy language such as, “The Brownie can we operated by most any schoolboy or schoolgirl.” Eastman also marketed to women, an novelty at the time …
To answer the question about what happened to the Brownie, Kodak produced and sold more than 150 models of the Brownie worldwide from 1900 until 1970, the last year the Brownie was manufactured.
Regarding the motion picture machine you saw in the Machines of Memory gallery, which you referred to as a “coin operated moving picture machine,” it is in fact an Edison Kinetoscope from 1894. The Kinetoscope is one of the earliest commercially produced motion picture systems, and used film Eastman adapted from his 1888 Kodak camera. The label was there, just posted on top of the case and clearly too high for you to see. We’ll see what we can do about moving it lower …
Thank you, again, for featuring Eastman House and our collection!
Dresden Engle, Public Relations Manager,
George Eastman House
March 5, 2007 at 11:45 am
Dear Dresden,
Thank you very much for your detailed information answering our questions. I’ll point my readers to your comment and correct my mistake on the Edison Kinetoscope from 1894. Thank you for seeing what you can do about moving the sign lower. I truly didn’t see it and was very curious about it, as were my readers. I even received phone calls about it. I’ll be visiting the Eastman House again soon. You have a wonderful museum! There is so much there to see and do I think I could blog about it for quite a while.
Not only this, I think my posts have sparked at least three people to want to come visit your museum, which was my hope!
Thank you again for your time and information!
Pam
March 5, 2007 at 6:02 pm
[...] I received a comment on my post here from Dresden Engle, Public Relations Manager, George Eastman House which I found very interesting [...]