The Kodak Brownies
Tuesday 7 October 2003
George Eastman’s Kodak company launched the first Brownie camera in 1900. In 1950 Kodak gave free cameras to 500,000 children, to celebrate 50 years of the Brownie line. (And, perhaps, to ensure continued film sales).
In 2000, to mark 100 years of the Brownie, Kodak gave us all a website celebrating the Brownie. Not as generous as half-a-million free cameras, but still worth a look. Among the cameras on display is the Brownie Starflash (1957–65)—just like my second camera, except that it is red and mine was blue. My first camera was a Brownie 127—there is one of those in the Eastman Museum Brownie Collection.
Brownie Starflash camera [image from kodak.com, reduced and recoloured by me]