224
by him consist of four portraits in Japan, and one portrait
of Gohachiro Namura, a translator to the expedition, in
the B. P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Although, as with so many other early expeditionary
photographers, the actual artifacts of his career have
largely disappeared, we are fortunate in having enough
access to their facsimiles to appreciate the vision and
skill Eliphalet Brown, Jr. brought to a diffi cult role.
Bruce T. Erickson
Biography
Eliphalet Brown, Jr. was born in 1816 in Newburyport,
Massachusetts. An accomplished artist, he excelled
at lithography and worked for many of New York’s
principal lithographic publishers in the mid 1800s,
including Currier and Ives. He learned daguerreotype
from his younger brother James Sydney Brown, who
had also come to New York to earn his living as an
artist, but who became instead Matthew Brady’s fi rst
daguerreotype operator, leaving after several years
to practice daguerreotype.on his own. When Com-
modore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy embarked
on the famous expedition to open up Japan to the
West, he selected Eliphalet Brown, Jr. to be his of-
fi cial photographer. From 1852 to 1855, Brown made
approximately four hundred daguerreotyes in Japan
and other locations in the orient. Nineteen of these
were rendered as lithographs and published in a three
volume U.S. Government report, usually designated or
credited as “dag by E. Brown.” At the conclusion of the
expedition, Brown continued in Navy service, never
again being active in any area of art or photography.
He retired around 1875, married and lived quietly until
his death on 24 January, 1886.
See Also: Matthew Brady.
Further Reading
Erickson, Bruce T., Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr., An Early Expedition
Photographer, The Daguerreian Annual, Pittsburgh: Daguer-
reian Society, 1990.
Groce, George C. and Wallace, David H., The New York Historical
Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564–1860, New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
Hawks, Francis L., Narrative of the Expedition of an American
Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, performed in the years
1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore
M. C. Perry, United States Navy, Vols I, II, III, Washington,
D.C.: Senate Printing Offi ce, 1856).
Ozawa, Takeshi, Nihon No Shashin Shi [The History of Japanese
Photography], Tokyo: Nikkor Club, 1986.
Rudisill, Richard, Mirror Image, Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press, 1971.
Welling, William, Photography in America, the Formative Years,
1839–1900, New York: Crowell, 1978.
BROWNELL, FRANK A. (1859–1939)
Frank Brownell was born in Canada in 1859 and moved
to Rochester, New York, where he was apprenticed to
Yawman & Erbe. He opened his own cabinet-making
and camera shop in Rochester and began working for
George Eastman in 1885. In 1892 Eastman established
the Camera Works with Brownell working exclusively
for the Kodak company. He designed over sixty cam-
eras for Kodak between 1885 and 1902 including the
Brownie camera. After fi nally leaving Eastman Kodak
in 1906 he moved into making motors for marine and
automobile use. He died on 2 February 1939.
Frank Brownell was born on 4 February 1859 in Vi-
enna, Canada. He moved to Rochester, New York, after
graduation in 1875 aged 16 and was apprenticed to the
machinistsYawman & Erbe. In his own time designed
a plate camera that was accepted by the Union View
Camera company for manufacture. In 1883 he opened
his own cabinet-making and camera shop at 282 State
Street, Rochester, and produced a large range of studio
and professional cameras.
In 1885 George Eastman, founder of the Eastman
Dry Plate and Film Company asked Brownell to produce
the Eastman-Walker roll fi lm holder, a largely wooden
device which carried a paper roll for producing a nega-
tive and could be fi tted on to any camera with a standard
back. After legal threats derailed Eastman’s fi rst attempt
to introduce a detective camera in 1887 Eastman turned
to Brownell around the 10 October 1887 with his idea
for a new camera. Brownell began making the wooden
parts on 12 October 1887 and Yawman & Erbe were
asked to produce the metal parts and shutter mechanism
and to undertake the assembly. The camera was sold as
the Kodak and introduced in 1888.
Although Brownell’s involvement in the original
Kodak was confi ned to making the wooden body and
transporting them to Yawman & Erbe by 1889 he was
designing much of the fi rst Folding Kodak camera
which he patented and in 1891 he developed a day-
light loading cartridge and a series of three Daylight
Kodak cameras which could be loaded and unloaded
in subdued light.
In April 1892 Brownell’s factory suffered a fi re for
which he was largely uninsured and Eastman construct-
ed a new building at 333 State Street close to his own
factory to manufacture cameras for a cost not exceeding
$60,000. The building had 55,000 square feet of fl oor
area and a 126 horsepower engine to drive machinery.
The provision of plenty of daylight was a particular fea-
ture. Eastman called the factory the Camera Works and
rented it to Brownell who signed an exclusive contract
with Eastman to design and make Kodak cameras. It
was occupied from 1893 and, in reality, was Eastman’s
fi rst step in establishing his own camera manufactory.