The Brownie at 100

The Brownie at 100

Imagine! It was 1900, the beginning of a new millennium—anything was possible for those lucky enough to be young at a time filled with new inventions and accelerating change.

At that exhilarating moment in history, the Brownie camera was introduced. Like no other camera of its day, it was a mass-marketing triumph. At a cost of only one dollar, the Brownie made photography accessible to just about everyone. The small, square camera marked the beginning of a family of more than 100 camera models and numerous accessories that would be advertised, bought, and used for the next 60 years.

Why did Mr. Eastman call it "The Brownie"? In the early 1900s, the brownie characters who appeared in stories by Canadian author Palmer Cox were about as familiar to children as Pokemon characters are to children today. Cox's gnome-like Scottish brownie characters, which illustrated stories published in St. Nicholas magazine and some twenty books, had been used to sell several products. George Eastman, with his keen eye for marketing, decided to use the brownie name for the camera designed for children by Frank A. Brownell, who has designed all Eastman camera models for the Eastman Kodak Company since 1888.

The Brownie was produced in large numbers from inexpensive materials, so prices were kept low. Mr. Eastman also used a rather novel sales approach: he required his dealers carry one at least on Brownie camera on consignment—they didn't have to pay for it until they sold it. This method encourage camera dealers to give the $1 Brownie a try. Records show that 150,000 Brownies were shipped to eager young customers the first year. That's 100,000 more cameras than had been produced in any year previously.

Usually, manufacturers advertised their products in specialty photographic trade magazines only. But Mr. Eastman took an aggressive approach and advertised the Brownie in popular magazines of the day. Eastman Kodak Company established The Brownie Camera Club for kids 16 and under, offering prizes such as rolls of film or higher quality Kodak cameras, to the best young photographers.

Before the Brownie, you had to visit a professional photography studio if you wanted a photograph of your grandparents or your new baby brother. The Brownie camera changed all that. Suddenly, anyone could capture a moment with friends and family—and children led the way in documenting on film the important times in their lives.

Todd Gustavson

Curator

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