Brownie Camera

MediumLeather, wood, metals, glass

Dimensions9 3/4 × 4 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (24.8 × 12.1 × 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsTools, Implements and Scientific Equipment

Credit LineGift of Neva Petersen. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number85.8.5

Status

On view

Label TextThe Ansco No. 3A Folding Buster Brown is a folding camera designed to produce postcard-sized images on roll film. Under Ansco’s film-size system of the period, it used either 18A or 18B film, allowing for six or ten exposures respectively, a format equivalent to Kodak’s 122 film, which employed a 3.75-inch-tall spool. The camera was part of a line of folding bed cameras manufactured at Ansco’s factory in Binghamton, New York, and was introduced around 1912 or 1913. It features a focusing lever with a distance scale, a reflecting-type viewfinder mounted on the folding bed, and an Actus shutter offering three speeds up to 1/100 second, along with T and B settings. Chrome-plated metal fittings, combined with black leather-covered and painted body components, give the camera a refined and elegant appearance. The name “Buster Brown” or “Brownie” derives from the popular newspaper cartoon character later adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company—a blond boy with a pageboy haircut and his dog companion. However, the character does not appear on the camera itself, nor is he mentioned in the contemporary instruction manuals associated with the model. https://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3060 https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Ansco_No._3A_Folding_Buster_Brown

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