Summary

A glass plate containing four small black and white cellulose negatives (1 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches) of men and women circa 1890. The four images, likely made for a postage stamp camera or pocket camera, were housed in the Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd company Museum in Coburg, in a Kodak film box marked 'Mr T Bedgood', with a museum identification sticker on the cover.

Also inside the box were the business and compliments cards of Raymond Barnes, the Manager of 'Department of Film Production' on Brisbane Street, Hobart. There is a note stating that 'These negs were taken with the prototype Brownell 'Brownie' camera by Mr Vernon Smith of Penguin Tasmania while on a trip to France in 1890'. This information is yet to be verified.

This object is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

Description of Content

Four negatives - top left appears to be a man and a woman operating a cheese press or similar with a man in boater hat and coat watching, top right is a man and a woman in a field, bottom left features three women in hats and dresses with a bike in the background, and at bottom right is the same three women posing in a boat.

Physical Description

Two glass plates, masking taped together around the edges to form a single plate, with four small black and white negatives pressed between.

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