page_title: Benjamin W. Kilburn
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin W. Kilburn / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: The Kilburn Gun Camera was invented by Benjamin W. Kilburn to take pictures among the White Mountains and was manufactured by Scovill Mfg. Co. from approximately 1882 to 1886. It consisted of a small camera mounted on a gun-stock and provided with sights and triggers. The camera was constructed of mahogany with a cherry base, a black fabric bellows and brass lacquered hardware. Rear focus adjustment was accomplished by way of a rack and pinion or manual pull. Was available in 4x5 size only. Priced in 1883 at $27 for the outfit or $5 for the gun-stock.
context_page_description: Benjamin West Kilburn was an American photographer and stereoscopic view publisher famous for his landscape images of the nascent American and Canadian state, provincial, and national parks and his visual record of the great migrations at the end of the nineteenth century. Kilburn was a legislator in the New Hampshire General Court. A patent was granted for his gun-style camera.
context_section_description: Benjamin W. Kilburn is remembered both as a visual  historian of immigration and international tourism and as the world's most extensive manufacturer of stereoscopic views from 1865 to 1910. He became a pioneer of photojournalism documenting the presidential inauguration of Grover Cleveland, the Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania, the Boer War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Spanish–American War, among other events. He also is credited with invention of a photo gun camera, which was manufactured by Scovill Mfg. Co. from 1882 to 1886, to circumvent the tripod usage while taking pictures among the White Mountains, New Hampshire.
  Civic-minded citizen, American Civil War veteran and supporter of the Grand Army of the Republic, he developed an early fire-fighting apparatus, and was involved in search and rescue on Mount Washington.
caption: Kilburn Gun Camera