THE BROOKLYN AND NASSAU CAMERAS
Brooklyn
Camera Company, 1197 & 1199 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 1891-1893
The Brooklyn with
plate holders
The
Brooklyn
The Nassau
The Nassau
The Nassau with its field
case and plate holder
The Brooklyn
and the Nassau were inexpensive
student cameras, one of their advertisements declaring "our specialty is
manufacturing cheap but good outfits for the trade". True to their claim, the cameras are simple
in design, and reasonably well constructed.
Despite the lack of a maker's plate or body stampings,
both are no doubt Brooklyn Camera Company products, sharing identical lenses,
lens caps, hardware and bed construction. The
only real difference between the two cameras is the Brooklyn's bellows in
contrast to the Nassau's sliding box-in-a-box style. Like many other student cameras
of the period, beyond the ability to focus they lacked more advanced movements
such as swing, tilt and a rising/falling lens board.
The Brooklyn Camera Company's name has also been found on
brass lenses, but they were most likely manufactured by another firm.
Relatively little is known about the firm, and with only
advertisements from 1891-1893 to go by, the Brooklyn Camera Company was
apparently short-lived. The Index to Record and Guide LVII
for New York Conveyances, Leases, Mortgages, Projected Buildings and
Advertisers, for January-June, 1896, contains an entry for the Brooklyn Camera
Company, E.A. Landon, under the Judgments section (judgment debtor) in the
amount of $35.85. If indeed this is THE Brooklyn
Camera Company, it indicates the firm was still in existence by 1896, possibly
experiencing financial problems that may have contributed to its demise.
Student cameras by other makers would remain popular into
the late 1890's, with E. & H.T. Anthony continuing to market their Eureka
School Outfit through 1901.
Compared with most of the student cameras made by Anthony, Scovill and E.I. Horseman, products from the Brooklyn Camera Company are quite rare. Almost none are seen today, and these are among the few examples known.