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The Brownie Camera
by Eaton S. Lothrop, Jr.

(Reprinted with permission of Eaton S. Lothrop, Jr., author, and Taylor & Francis, publisher of the quarterly, The History of Photography, from Volume 2, Number 1, of January 1978, pp. 1-10.)
To be considered a 'landmark', a camera must be either one of an original design, or else one whose appearance on the scene marked the beginning of a noticeable change in the habits and procedures of the picture-taking public. In both of these respects the Brownie, which was introduced early in 1900 by the Eastman Kodak Co., of Rochester, New York, is a landmark camera. It marked the beginning of the Kodak line of Brownie cameras, which lasted until the 1960's, and it was relatively inexpensive, which made it suitable for promoting an interest in picture taking among children.
   The Brownie camera (fig.1) was first announced to photographic dealers in February 1900 with the comment, "The dollar camera is at last a fact. Of course, there have been pin-hole affairs, with a groove in the back to hold a glass plate, which have been sold for almost nothing - and were worth it, but the Brownie is the first really practical instrument at the price." 1 It was Kodak's intention to send each dealer a Brownie, on approval, while planning to 'manufacture them in enormous quantities', in anticipation of great demand. 2 However, even Kodak's high expectations under-estimated the enthusiasm with which dealers received the Brownies. In March, the company announced that they had a backlog of orders, and as soon as they had filled them, they began advertising the Brownie to the general public. 3 And yet, between the initial distribution of Brownies to the dealers and the first mass sales to the public, a problem arose that necessitated a basic change in the structure of the camera. The original Brownie was made of heavy jute board, reinforced with wood, and covered with neatly creased black imitation leather. The body of the camera measured 12.5 x 8.1 x 7.9 cm and the exposed metal parts were nickel-plated. Six exposures 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 in (6 x 6 cm), were produced on a newly-introduced size of transparent roll film which was later designated as No. 117. A rotary shutter operated in front of an f/14 single meniscus lens of 100 mm 		 
focal length. The camera's back was in the form of a slip-on box cover and was removed by pressing on two spring panels, one on either side. These panels were not very sturdy, and it is safe to assume that they did not last long in use. Moreover, the back fitted very loosely, and it is a fact that this first model never attained any significant public distribution. Of all the extant cameras bearing the designation 'Brownie Camera' inside 4, no more than perhaps one dozen or so are the early 'box-backed' model.
   Kodak's recognition of the defects of the model first distributed to dealers must have occurred between March and April 1900. While the instruction booklet for the early model Brownie bears the date March 1900 5, Kodak announced in April that 'the camera customers know as Brownies are very different from. And 100% better than, the instrument of this name that first reached our testing department. 6 That it was a hasty change is indicated by the fact that the company chose, in some instances at least, to paste a page of instructions for the improved model (headed 'Important Change') into the original instruction booklet. 7 (fig.2) Some confusion in the advertising also testifies to the rapidity of the change-over. The first advertisement to appear 8, in The Youth's Companion for 17th May 1900, shows the improved model, as does another one in Collier's Weekly for 19th May, but later advertisements in the June issues of The Cosmopolitan and McLure's Magazine show the original version, perhaps because those journals, being monthlies, required a longer 'lead time' for the submission of advertisements. The new back of the Brownie camera, introduced in April of 1900, was a great improvement, and was employed on later models of the same size, as well as on subsequent Brownies of other sizes. The new design consisted of a flat piece of jute board, covered with imitation leather, and hinged at the bottom edge. Where it opened, at the top, it was fastened by a nickel-covered elongated metal plate.

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