Sepia Saturday 219: Vacation Days are Kodak Days

Almost five years ago Bill Nelson shared several images with me from a large, fascinating set of nitrocellulose negatives taken during a grand tour of Europe during the summer of 1904, and very kindly offered me the use of them for future Photo-Sleuth blog posts. It's taken me a while, and I'll admit they did slip off the radar a little in the mean time, but at last I've found an opportunity to use a few of them. Hopefully I'll be able to share more of them in the next few months.

I first obtained them as a packet of nitrocellulose negatives in glassine sleeves, approximately 12 cm x 9.25 cm. Through a little sleuthing of my own, I was able to establish that they were taken beginning in May, 1904 and throughout the summer in England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and, in one instance, Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine the identity of the photographer. I'm working on it.

One thing about these images I find remarkable is that the quality is quite high - I've cleaned them up in some cases, but the images are sharp enough to enlarge to 40 cm x 50 cm. Another is that the images themselves are not typical tourist photos but rather more documentary in character.

Stephansdom from the Graben, Wien, 1904
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
None of the views were annotated, but this one was immediately recognisable to me as the Stephansdom (St Stephen's Cathedral) in Wien (Vienna) with its characteristically patterned roof tiles. Further investigation via Google Earth indicates that, in spite the photographer presumably being an amateur - judging by the content, rather than quality, of the remaining images in the collection - he has taken the trouble to find a suitable viewpoint above street level, in fact on the first floor of a building in the Graben.

The usual horse-drawn traffic which still plies the area around the cathedral today - albeit carrying tourists rather than trade goods - is evident and the streets are mercifully free from thronging hordes. Conveniently overlooking the square in front of the cathedral are the offices of Thomas Cook & Son, and I am very sad to report that the Riedl Hotel Royal is now occupied by none other than ... you guessed it, MacDonalds.


Stephansdom, Wien, October 1989
Kodachrome colour positive film, 35mm
Image © 1988 Brett Payne
Having visited Vienna in October 1989 and again in June 1993, I was very much taken with the striking mosaic of roof tiles. Although the impressive interior of the domed roof of the Library of Congress Reading Room depicted in this week's Sepia Saturday Photochrom image is quite different architecturally, it too has a pattern to it that both pleases the eye and emphasizes its slope and expanse.


Stephansdom, Wien, October 1988
Kodachrome colour positive film, 35mm
Image © 1988 Brett Payne

Stephansdom, Wien, c. 1901
Photochrom image by Detroit Photographic Co.
Indeed, the Detroit Photographic Co. had published their own colourised photographic view of Stephansdom a few years earlier using the Photochrom process under license.


The Asparagus Seller
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
This wonderful photograph is also from Bill's series of negatives, showing two women selling asparagus and what are probably roast chestnuts wrapped in chestnut leaves from the street in front of a large building. Although it too has no title, I feel there is a distinct possibility that it may have been taken in front of Vienna's famous cathedral.


Stephansdom, Wien, c. 1905
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Another photograph of Stephansdom taken around the same time shows figures in front of the cathedral who may similarly be touting their wares to tourists and other passersby.


Two Gentlemen in London, 1904
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
As usual when I am looking at early amateur photographs, my mind turned to the camera which might have been used to produce such high quality images. Bill was thinking along similar lines when he emailed me this convivial snapshot from the same series:

I can't believe this never occurred to me in all the years I've been looking at these photos. Look at the "Two Gentlemen" photo [taken in London]. The guy in the straw boater. Do you think that might be a camera case he has slung over his shoulder? The camera was obviously on a tripod for this photo- the shutter speed was too slow for a hand-held shot. I wonder if the photographer himself stepped in front of the camera and had a companion trip the shutter?

The shape of the case looks to me more like one for binoculars than a camera, but to provide a more definitive answer I looked at the size of the negatives. Bill told me that they vary in size to a certain extent, but are generally "approximately 3.6 in. x 4.75 in. or about 92.5 x 120 mm." I presume that these are the maximum dimensions of the cut negatives, which could be expected to vary somewhat, depending on how they were cut. If so, then the actual photographic image dimensions would be a little less, and should be more regular, being defined by the size of the camera body.

Comparing this to the range of roll film available at that time (i.e. 1904ish), I think it most likely that it equates to a size of 3½" x 4¼" (89 x 108). There were several film sizes produced with these dimensions, but the two most likely candidates are the 118 and 119 formats, first manufactured by Kodak in 1900.


No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak Model C3
Several cameras used this film, and the most commonly available ones at the time those photographs were taken were:
118 format: No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak, Models A to C-3 (1900-1907) & Deluxe (1901-1903), No 4 Folding Pocket Ansco
119 format: No 3 Cartridge Kodak (1900-1907)


No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak with leather case
The No 3 Folding Pocket Kodak was produced in huge numbers (over 288,000 between 1900 and 1915, when it was replaced with the No 3 Autographic Kodak), and I think is most likely what was used for the duration of the unidentified photographer's "grand tour." The images above show the camera opened up as well as folded and with its typical leather case. The shape is quite different from that carried by the man in the London street photograph. I am aware, however, that there were other roll film cameras around, as well as more sophisticated plate cameras which had been adapted with roll film backs.


The Pringle sisters in the garden, Ontario, Canada, c.1909-1912
Toned silver gelatin print, mounted on album page, 5½" x 3¼"
Image © and courtesy of Gail Perlee
Coincidentally, fellow Sepian Gail Perlee posted a family photograph on her blog Songs of a Nightingale last week of a group of young women posing in a garden. One of these women carries a leather case on a strap around her shoulders which I tentatively identified - because of its size - as being for a No 3A Autographic Kodak Special, slightly larger than the No 3. Gail confirmed the dimensions of the print:

I have the orig. prints. First 2 pix are 3 1/4 x 5 1/2. Shows how astute I am! I thought she was carrying a purse. A 2nd look, of course, shows a camera case!

The 5½" x 3¼" size equates to the 122-format film used by the No 3A.


No 3A Autographic Kodak Special, Model B, 1916-1919
Image © 2014 Brett Payne
The No 3A Autographic Kodak Special above, still in excellent condition although sadly without a case, is from my own collection. It is probably very similar to the camera used to take the group portrait in the garden, although manufactured just a few years later. Unfortunately this size film is no longer available, or I would have very much liked to try it out myself.


The Folding Pocket Kodaks, Advertisement, 1901
Courtesy of Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection Item K0014
Actually, it wasn't a lack of astuteness which led Gail to think she was carrying a purse. As Nancy Martha West discusses in her book, Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia, the Kodak pocket folding cameras of the 1890s and early 1900s were specifically marketed towards women, and designed to look as much like a purse or pocketbook as possible.


There's more to the Vacation when you Kodak, Advertisement, 1908
Courtesy of Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection Item K0074
In a series of advertisements appearing widely in newspapers, magazines and even in literature published by the Eastman Kodak Company, the image of the Kodak Girl became synonymous with the amateur photographer.


Bring your Vacation Home in a Kodak, Advertisement, 1905
Courtesy of Duke University Advertising Ephemera Collection Item K0521
Likewise, images of leisure activity in the country, on the beach, at fairs and travelling on holiday overseas pervaded Kodak advertising. I am struck by the similarities in content between several of the images in Bill's 1904 album and the themes commonly portrayed in the Kodak advertising of the time. Compare, for example, this 1905 advertisement of two Kodak girls on a dockside in the Netherlands, one using a Folding Pocket Kodak, the other a Box Brownie, with the photograph taken of two men and a girl wearing clogs in Marken by our anonymous visitor in 1904, reproduced below. All that's missing in the latter is a windmill. There were several similar scenes taken at Marken and Volendam, at least one including a windmill.


Men and Girl on the Docks, Marken, Netherlands, 1904
Nitrocellulose negative film, 3½" x 4¼", 118- or 119-format
Image © and courtesy of Bill Nelson
Since this brings us back to the 1904 album, albeit by a somewhat circuitous route, I'll leave it there for now. I'm very grateful to Bill and Gail for permission to use the images from their respective collections. The rest of the negatives from the Grand Tour set can be seen on his FlickrStream here. Once you've seen those, head over to Sepia Saturday to check out the remainder of this week's contributions.