Eastman 5x7 View Camera with Tripod
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880s
name: label: maker
content: Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company
notes: label: Description
content: This portable-style wooden bellows plate camera was popular with both professional and amateur photographers in the 1880s and well into the early twentieth century. Photographers attached plate holders with sensitized glass plates to the back of the camera, making fragile negatives. Wet-plate collodion photography popular from the 1850s to the late 1880s necessitated immediate developing and printing of these negatives. Landscape photographers and those on expeditions to the American West used small portable traveling darkrooms to complete quick developing and printing.
label: Description
content: From its invention in 1839, the camera has evolved to fit many needs, from aerial to underwater photography and everything in between. Cameras allow both amateur and professional photographers to capture the world around us. The Smithsonian’s historic camera collection includes rare and unique examples of equipment, and popular models, related to the history of the science, technology, and art of photography.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New York, Rochester
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
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content: Photography
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content: Artifact Walls exhibit
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of William Meggers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PG.74.19A.25
label: catalog number
content: 74.019A.25
label: accession number
content: 314637
objectType: label: Object Name
content: camera
label: Object Name
content: camera, view
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 cm x 23.5 cm x 60 cm; 11 13/16 in x 9 1/4 in x 23 5/8 in