further immortalized in numerous books, each of
which bore the same introductory description of
these creatures:
Brownies, like fairies and goblins, are imaginary little
sprites, who are supposed to delight in harmless pranks
and helpful deeds. They work and sport while weary
households sleep, and never allow themselves to be
seen by mortal eyes....
(Cox,The Brownies: Their Book1887, n.p.)
This description of the Brownie, when associated
with the Eastman’s camera, speaks both to common
assumptions about the nature of photography as
revealing of something of the intangible aspect of
the visual world unseen by the naked eye, as well as
to its fit with Eastman’s targeted users—children.
The original 1900 packaging of the Brownie camera
featured one of Cox’s mischievous creatures play-
ing against a colorful red, yellow, and green back-
ground on all four sides of the carton. In addition,
these same brownie characters pitched the notion
of photographing with the camera as a playful toy
in advertisements for the ten years from 1900 to
- Ultimately, this manufactured relationship
surfaced in one of Cox’s own illustrations, which
featured his character armed with the camera bear-
ing his name.
In addition to the marketing of the Brownie cam-
era with this popular children’s character, Eastman
Company also appealed to youth as potential
photographers through extensive illustrated ad-
vertisements. In fact, it is estimated that images of
children, engaged with this new photographic ‘toy,’
previously known to many of them solely within the
formal confines of the portrait studio, comprised
more than one-third of all those advertisements
produced by the company between 1917 and 1932.
Reproduced extensively in popular juvenile maga-
zines of the day such asSt. Nicholas,The Youth’s
Companion,American Boy and Boy’s Life, as well as
in the professional dealer publication,Kodak Trade
Circular, such Brownie advertisements were often
accompanied by the slogan, ‘‘Any Schoolboy or
Girl Can Make Good Pictures with the Brownie
Camera.’’ Ads produced after 1910 often focused
on young boys in particular, targeting their poten-
tial for a more sophisticated understanding of the
camera’s advanced features and capabilities, as
opposed to the carefree leisurely practice of the
‘‘Kodak Girls’’ of Eastman’s earlier campaigns.
Eastman Company expanded upon the marked
success of such campaigns with various special pro-
motions such as a Brownie Camera Club. In cele-
bration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding
of the company, Eastman offered young girls and
boys a free camera for their twelfth birthday during
1930—specifically, a unique variation of the No. 2
Hawkeye Brownie covered in tan imitation leather
and marked with a gold foil anniversary seal. In
just a few days in May 1930, approximately 550,000
of these special edition Brownies were distributed
to children.
Following the first Brownie introduced to the
public in 1900, to the last camera that carried this
name, nearly 100 different models were produced.
The first variation, simply called the No. 2 Brownie,
was introduced in 1901 and varied from the original
(thereafter call the No. 1) in several ways. The No. 2
Brownie was equipped with a reflective viewfinder
as well as three aperture options and produced 2¼
3¼-inch images. While this second version of the
Brownie cost twice as much as its predecessor, it was
extremely popular and served as the model for
numerous variations in design produced through
the 1950s. In fact, by 1930, the price of the No. 2
Brownie was not prohibitive, representing only 15%
of the average weekly wage of Eastman Company’s
factory employee.
The vastly popular Nos. 1 and 2 Brownies, widely
imitated by competing companies in both the Uni-
ted States and abroad, were also produced in an
ongoing line by Eastman Company in the coming
decades. In Great Britain, George Houghton and
Sons devised a version of the Brownie in 1901 called
the No. 1 Scout, while the American company
ANSCO sold a competing line of cameras bearing
the name Buster Brown, beginning in 1906. Those
variations of the original Brownie camera produced
by Eastman Company included several larger, and
more expensive, folding camera models, produced
between 1904 and 1926. In 1934, designer Walter
Dorwin Teague created the Baby Brownie in a series
of smaller models equipped with 127 roll film. The
design of the Baby Brownie embodied both newly
evolving capabilities in the molding of those plastics
used to form the camera body, as well as the sleek,
streamline aesthetics of the era. Specialty editions of
already existing models were produced throughout
the 1930s, including the Boy Scout Brownie (mar-
keted in 1932 and 1933–1934), which featured the
insignia of the American Boy Scouts against a geo-
metric design on the camera’s front panel as well as a
similar model commemorating the World’s Fair
(marketed in 1939–1940). Other embellishments
included Brownie models produced in a range of
colors, such as the No. 2 Portrait Brownie. In addi-
tion to being outfitted with a special adjustable lens
for close-up portraiture, this camera, marketed
especially to women, was available in six colors as
well as the standard black.BROWNIE