Sepia Saturday 169: Keeping a Kodak Story, the Autographic camera

The image prompt from Sepia Saturday this week depicts a swarm of photographers framing shots of the Washington Monument, the Tidal Basin and cherry trees in full bloom in April 1922. My focus will be on the instrument rather than the practitioner.


US Patent 1184941 issued to H.J Gaisman, 30 May 1916
Between 1912 and 1917, a young backyard inventor by the name of Henry J. Gaisman was granted several patents for photographic cameras. These improvements allowed the user to "write" a brief caption permanently on the film through a small window in the back of the camera, most importantly, at the time the picture was taken. Gaisman stated that his work on this device arose from the fact that "it annoyed him to return from a vacation trip with pictures that he could not identify," an irritation familiar to most of us who have taken more than a couple of snapshots.


"The Autographic Kodaks"
Detail from 1914 Advertisement by Eastman Kodak Co.
Image © and courtesy of Duke University Libraries Digital Collections
In July 1914 George Eastman of Eastman Kodal Ltd. paid Gaisman the "remarkable" sum of $300,000 for the patent rights. Within three months several Kodak camera models (1A, 3 and 3A) were on sale, modified accordingly, a special red paper/carbon-backed Autographic Film Cartridge also available in the appropriate film sizes (Coe, 1978).


"Make Your Kodak Autographic"
1914 Advertisement by Eastman Kodak Co.
Image © and courtesy of Duke University Libraries Digital Collections
In their marketing blurb Eastman Kodak described the Autographic as "the most important photographic Development in two decades." Not only was the feature "incorporated in all of the most important Kodak models," but they also supplied Autographic Backs at very reasonable prices, which could be retro-fitted to at least ten different models, as listed in a number of advertisements.

Prices from $9.00 to $65.00. If you already have a Kodak we can sell you a separate Autographic back. Prices $2.50 up.

"The Autographic Kodak" - a negative image
Detail from 1914 Advertisement by Eastman Kodak Co.
Image © and courtesy of Duke University Libraries Digital Collections
The advertisements emphasized the usefulness of the Autographic feature, and some included examples of the negatives and prints produced by the camera:

Every negative that is worth making is worth a date and title. The places you visit - interesting dates and facts about the children, their age at the time the pictures were made - the autographs of friends you photograph - these notations add to the value of every picture you make ... The amateur photographer who wants to improve the quality of his work can make notations on his negatives, of the light conditions, stop and exposure.

No 3A Autographic Kodak Special Model B
Image © and courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection
Kodak claimed great success with the Autographic models, in an 1915 advertisement apparently taken in by their own marketing strategies and hype (in West, 2000):

The Autographic feature has scored a hit, and a big one. At first, perhaps, the interest was mild ... now, in considerably less than a year, it is pretty hard to sell a camera without the Autographic Feature.

It would have been more accurate to say that it was pretty hard to find a Kodak camera without the Autographic feature as a standard feature.


"The Day of His Going"
1918 Advertisement by Eastman Kodak Co.
Image © and courtesy of Duke University Libraries Digital Collections
After the United States joined the War in April 1917, Kodak urged wives to capture the day of their husband's departure for Europe on film, not forgetting the date and title, permanently recorded on the negative. The Vest Pocket Kodak Autographic, reputedly used by the famed Ansel Adams on his second visit to Yellowstone in 1917, was even marketed as "The Soldier's Camera." The marketing focus was now on nostalgia rather than usefulness.


"?13/2/18 On Barron's Farm" - Paper print (116 x 78mm; 4¼" x 2½")
by an unidentified photographer using A116 film and a No. 1A Autographic Kodak or a No. 2A Folding Autographic Brownie camera
Image © and courtesy of Kristin Cleage
Fellow Sepian contributer Kristin Cleage posted this print of a rural family on her blog Finding Eliza a couple of years ago, and kindly assented to my using it to illustrate this article. It is typical of the prints that could be produced from Autographic film, the black left hand border containing a somewhat overexposed caption which is rather hard to read, perhaps indicative of a problem that was sometimes encountered with the Autographic.


No 1A Autographic Kodak (L), No 2A Folding Autographic Brownie (R)
Images © and courtesy of Historic Camera
Assuming that it is a contact print, the size corresponds to A116 film, which was used by both the No. 1A Autographic Kodak and the No. 2A Folding Autographic Brownie cameras, shown above. Kristin believes it was mostly likely taken at the farm of Oscar Barron in Elmore, Alabama, where her great-grandmother Annie Graham was working and living with her four children in 1920.


"Old Bill" - Paper print (40 x 60mm; 1⅝" x 2½")
by an unidentified photographer, undated
using A127 film and a Vest Pocket Kodak Autographic camera
Image © and courtesy of the Tauranga Heritage Collection
Another example of an Autographic print, this one probably taken in the late 1910s or early 1920s and possibly a copy, is from the Gunson-Stewart Album in the Tauranga Heritage Collection. The identity of the subject is unknown, although "Old Bill" could be William Nassau Stewart (1873-1954) of Katikati, maternal uncle of a former owner of the album.


Vest Pocket Kodak Autographic Special
Image © and courtesy of Historic Camera
Unless it is an enlargement rather than a contact print, the print size indicates A127 film, which was used in the Vest Pocket Kodak Autographic Special. Autographic cameras were on sale in New Zealand from at least as early as October 1915 (Advertisement, BOP Times, 1915).


"EAP" Kodak Autographic Print
Image © and courtesy of Fred the Oyster & Flickr
One of the few Autographic images that I did find is this example from Fred the Oyster's Flickr feed, which he scanned (and presumably inverted) from a negative purchased in a junk shop. I have seen very few examples of prints with the Autographic-style caption, and a trawl on the internet produces a similarly meagre catch.

Well known New Zealand photohistorian Bill Main (1990) wrote:

A type of camera which turns up regularly on our doorstep for our museum at the Centre is the Autographic Kodak in all its various shapes and sizes. The paradox of this is the fact that perhaps the rarest item in our collection happens to be photos made with the distinctive Autographic inscription on the print surrounds ... Why this innovation never appealed to the millions of Autographic camera users needs a lot of analysis and study.

and others have described similar experiences (Anon, 2001):

Over the years, at flea markets and antique stores, I've searched through boxes of old snapshots, but I rarely find Autographic prints with notations in the margins. If my experience is typical, then it makes me wonder if the Autographic feature was used very often?

Write it on the film - at the time.    Make every negative more interesting; more valuable by permananently recording, at the time of exposure, the all important - who, when, where. It's a simple and almost instantaneous process with an Autographic Kodak Ask your dealer, or write us for catalogue EASTMAN KODAK CO., Rochester, N.Y., The Kodak City

Eastman Kodak advertisement, 1917
With a little perseverance they can be found - Getty Images has a couple of examples from c.1918 and 1920 - but they are often referred to as a rarity. Judging by the number of Autographic cameras now available on eBay, between 1914 and the late 1930s, when they were discontinued, a huge number (reputedly millions) were sold, so why are there so few extant prints with the caption selvedge? There are several possible explanations:

• There are many more examples, both in private collections and on the web, but they have not been recognised as emanating from Autographic cameras. Searching the web with Google Images retrieves hundreds of images of cameras, but very few photographs produced by them.
• When prints are scanned for display on the web, the tendency is to remove framing and borders for aesthetic reasons. Many captions may also have been removed in the process, making them impossible to identify.
• Despite Eastman Kodak's initial enthusiasm for the innovation, it is conceivable that the majority of Autographic users over the two decades that they were produced just couldn't be bothered to caption each and every snapshot they took.

The text of this Kodak advertisement from 1915 suggests, however, that most prints never have included the captions, even though they may have been inscribed on the negative:

The Autographic records are made on the margins between the exposures. It is not intended that they be made to appear in the prints themselves but that they be simply preserved as an authoritative reference. It is obvious, however, that they may be shown on the print itself - if desired.

Sadly the bulk of the negatives from films exposed during the Autographic era have probably been discarded decades ago, so we may never know.


Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Special
Image © and courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection
If you have any snapshots in your collection, either prints or original negatives, that include the typical Autographic caption, I'd be keen to hear from you, and perhaps to share images of them in a future Photo-Sleuth follow-up. Please email me.

For those readers wanting to match prints and negatives to cameras, this table may be useful. I've also created a Autographic Print Format PDF template with the various format sizes, which may be downloaded and printed out. It's always worth bearing in mind that not all prints are contact prints, i.e. identical in size to the negative from which they were printed. Enlargements were also offered to customers, even in Victorian and Edwardian times, but the vast majority of prints that were produced prior to the 1930s seem to be the much more affordable contact prints.

Film Size	Print/Negative Size	Camera Model(s)
A116	2½" x 4¼" (64 x 108 mm)	1A, 2A
A118	3¼" x 4¼" (83 x 108 mm)	3
A120	2¼" x 3¼" (57 x 83 mm)	1,2
A122	3¼" x 5½" (83 x 140 mm)	3A
A123	4" x 5" (102 x 127 mm)	4 (with conversion back)
A126	4¼" x 6½" (108 x 165 mm)	4A (with conversion back)
A127	1⅝" x 2¼" (41 x 57 mm)	Vest Pocket
A130	2⅞" x 4⅞" (73 x 124 mm)	2C

Acknowledgements

Kristin Cleage and Fiona Kean kindly assented to my use of Autographic prints, the former from her personal archives, the latter from the Tauranga Heritage Collection. Fiona also went to some trouble to assist with obtaining photographs of several Autographic cameras from the collection, for which I am most grateful.

References

Duke University Libraries Digital Collections, Emergence of Advertising in America Collection.

Eastman Autographic film, on Early Photography

Advertisement, Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 6506, 6 October 1915, Page 4, courtesy of Papers Past.

Anon (1914) $300,000 Won by a Young Inventor, The New York Times, 10 July 1914.

Anon (2001) Eastman Kodak Size A118 Autographic Film Cartridge, Scott's Photographic Collection.

Chocrón, Daniel Jiménez (2013) No. 1 Autographic Kodak Junior, on From the Focal Plane to Infinity.

Coe, Brian (1978) Cameras, from Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures, United States: Crown Publishers, 240pp.

Gustavson, Todd (2009) Camera, A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital, New York: Sterling, 360pp.

Macpherson, Alan M D (nd) Kodak - No. 2 Autographic Brownie, on Classic Cameras.

Main, Bill (1990) Kodak Autographic Special, New Zealand Centre for Photography, 10 Cameras Exhibition [retrieved 12 March 2013 from cache on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine].

West, Nancy Martha (2000) "Let Kodak Keep the Story" - Narrative, Memory, and the Selling of the Autographic Camera during World War I, in Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia, University of Virginia Press, Ch 6, p.166-199.