Photography

Leica 35mm Camera

The millions of photographs in the Museum's collections compose a vast mosaic of the nation's history. Photographs accompany most artifact collections. Thousands of images document engineering projects, for example, and more record the steel, petroleum, and railroad industries.

Some 150,000 images capture the history, art, and science of photography. Nineteenth-century photography, from its initial development by W. H. F. Talbot and Louis Daguerre, is especially well represented and includes cased images, paper photographs, and apparatus. Glass stereographs and news-service negatives by the Underwood & Underwood firm document life in America between the 1890s and the 1930s. The history of amateur photography and photojournalism are preserved here, along with the work of 20th-century masters such as Richard Avedon and Edward Weston. Thousands of cameras and other equipment represent the technical and business side of the field.

Resource Type: Cameras (photographic equipment)

Kodak 35

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
PG.004570
catalog number
4570

Leica IIIc with 50mm f/3.5 lens and case

The Leica IIIc differs from the IIIa and IIIb model in several ways, not all of them obvious.
Description
The Leica IIIc differs from the IIIa and IIIb model in several ways, not all of them obvious. The Leica IIIc externally looks very much like the IIIb, the most obvious difference from the IIIb is the placing of the viewfinder and rangefinder windows next to each other.
Other differences between the IIIc and IIIb are less visible. The IIIc has a die cast body with the rangefinder housing an integral part of the top plate. The die cast body was quicker and less expensive to make than the previous brass assemblies. Also the slow speed dial is marked from 1 to 1/30 second instead of 1 to 1/20.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1941 - 1942
maker
Ernst Leitz
Leica
ID Number
1990.0242.01
catalog number
1990.0242.01
accession number
1990.0242
catalog number
1990.242.1
serial number
381059

Nikon FM 3148110

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1977
user
Zalesky, Roy Joseph
maker
Nikon
ID Number
2017.0306.0158
accession number
2017.0306
catalog number
2017.0306.0158

Minox Camera Outfit

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.69.165.04
accession number
287545
catalog number
69.165.04

Agfa Karat

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.71.038.15
accession number
296423
catalog number
71.038.15

Kodak Baby Brownie Camera

This Eastman Kodak "Baby Brownie" camera commemorates the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). The camera’s faceplate features the Fair’s dominant architectural features, the Trylon and the Perisphere.Currently not on view
Description
This Eastman Kodak "Baby Brownie" camera commemorates the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). The camera’s faceplate features the Fair’s dominant architectural features, the Trylon and the Perisphere.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1939
Associated Date
1939
1940
ID Number
1989.0438.1741B
accession number
1989.0438
catalog number
1989.0438.1741B

Kodak Bullet Camera

Special edition souvenir "Bullet" camera sold at the Eastman-Kodak Pavilion at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair.
Description (Brief)
Special edition souvenir "Bullet" camera sold at the Eastman-Kodak Pavilion at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair. The camera's faceplate features the Fair's dominant architectural features, The Trylon and the Perisphere.
The Trylon was a 610 foot triangular pylon, and the Perisphere a massive globe, 180 feet in diameter. A 950 foot ramp known as the Heliceline connected the two, and together, the three features constituted the Fair's "Theme Center." Images of the Trylon and Perisphere were used as logos for the Fair, and were featured on an abundance of souvenir items.
At the Fair, the "Bullet" camera sold for $2.25. Fairgoers also had the option of buying a Kodak "Brownie" camera for $2.75. After purchasing their cameras, visitors could take advantage of the Kodak-Photo Garden, which featured a number of snapshot ready tableaux as well as views of some of the Fair's most interesting features.
During its run, the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair attracted nearly 45 million people to its site in Flushing Meadows. At the Fair, visitors were introduced to advancements in such technologies as television, color photography, synthetic materials and robotics, as well as a wide variety of consumer goods and entertainments.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1939
Associated Date
1939
1940
ID Number
1989.0438.1740
catalog number
1989.0438.1740
accession number
1989.0438

Howard ankle camera

Press cameras were forbidden from the prison execution chamber in Ossining, New York, where Ruth Snyder was to be electrocuted on January 12, 1928, for the murder of her husband.
Description
Press cameras were forbidden from the prison execution chamber in Ossining, New York, where Ruth Snyder was to be electrocuted on January 12, 1928, for the murder of her husband. Editors at the New York Daily News believed it their duty to have both a journalist and photographer cover this event. Since all witnesses to the execution would be searched and frisked upon entry to the chamber, the newspaper planned their coverage well in advance.
One month before Snyder's execution, editors in New York enlisted the help of Chicago Tribune photographer Thomas Howard to prepare for their news coverage. Howard, who would not be recognized by New York prison officials, was brought to New York a month before the execution. He stayed in a hotel practising making exposures with this modifyed miniature plate camera. He strapped the camera to his ankle with a long cable release run up his trouser leg into his pants pocket. He lifted the pant leg to take a photograph.
Howard gained entry to witness Snyder's electrocution, achieving a slightly blurred image documenting the horror of the scene. The New York Daily News donated the camera to the Smithsonian in 1963.
Location
Currently not on view
user
Howard, Tom
associated institution
New York Daily News
maker
Leica
ID Number
PG.007107
accession number
250517
catalog number
7107

Field Camera

Although large and cumbersome by today's standards, field cameras and lenses let photography move outside of the studio and into the landscape, allowing for the creation of images seared into our collective memories.
Description
Although large and cumbersome by today's standards, field cameras and lenses let photography move outside of the studio and into the landscape, allowing for the creation of images seared into our collective memories. The wet-plate collodion process required wet and dry chemicals and processing trays to prepare plates and develop the negatives.
ID Number
PG.4268C
accession number
164051
catalog number
4268C

Brownie #2, Model D

Brownie #2, Model D, rollfilm with instruction booklet and caseCurrently not on view
Description
Brownie #2, Model D, rollfilm with instruction booklet and case
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
c. 1908
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
PG.72.84.03
catalog number
72.84.03
accession number
1992.0306

Shoes with spy camera in heel

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.72.099
accession number
308399
catalog number
72.099

Camera given as a GiveawaySouvenir at Yankee Stadium

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1990s
referenced
New York Yankees
ID Number
1994.0389.01
catalog number
1994.0389.01
accession number
1994.0389

Official Girl Scout Camera

Herbert-George Company Official Girl Scout Camera with attached flash assembly. The medium format camera has a black and red plastic body with two small grey metal panels attached to the front printed with a red grid.
Description (Brief)
Herbert-George Company Official Girl Scout Camera with attached flash assembly. The medium format camera has a black and red plastic body with two small grey metal panels attached to the front printed with a red grid. One surrounds the view finder and the other, printed with the phrase "Official Girl Scout" and the Girl Scout log, is beneath the lens. A dial for advancing film and the shutter release button are tow red plastic features on the camera's left side. The back of the camera is black plastic with a grid pattern and has two small round plastic panes, one for the view finder and the other over the film chamber. The camera used 620 size film. The camera's flash, black plastic with a metal pan, is marked XM2-PLUS+. The camera has an attached black plastic strap attached at the top, behind the flash. The camera is very similar to the Herbert George Company's Imperial Debonair model, produced from the early 1950s to 1961.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1950-1961
maker
Herbert George Company
ID Number
2008.3018.01
nonaccession number
2008.3018
catalog number
2008.3018.01

Horizon Perfekt

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
user
Palu, Louie
ID Number
2017.0167.0001
catalog number
2017.0167.0001
accession number
2017.0167

Alpa Reflex camera

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s
user
Brett-Surman, Kenneth Hayton
ID Number
2017.0244.0004
accession number
2017.0244
catalog number
2017.0244.0004

Rapatronic, Type 3123E3

High speed electronic camera used "to record early nuclear detonation phenomena....
Description
High speed electronic camera used "to record early nuclear detonation phenomena.... Because it uses electrical impulses rather than a mechaankical device for opening and closing its shutter, it can tke pictures with exposure times of less than a millionth of a secont..." Peter F. Chapski. letter to EO 1.11.63.
maker
Edgerton, Harold
ID Number
PG.007035
catalog number
7035
accession number
246413

Hawkeye Camera

maker
Sony Corporation of America
ID Number
2020.0098.0001
catalog number
2020.0098.0001
accession number
2020.0098

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