Patent Reflex Hand Camera
Camera
Patent Reflex Hand Camera
ca. 1902
Gift of Georgia O'Keeffe
Description4 x 5, serial #268, owned by Alfred Stieglitz
TextCalvin Rae Smith patented the first American reflex camera, the Monocular Reflex camera, in 1884. Six years later, he patented an improved version, with the Reflex Camera Company of Yonkers, New York, bringing it to market as the Patent Reflex camera in the late 1890s. Unlike most reflex cameras, Smith’s design used an internal bellows focusing mechanism, the ground glass covered by a red leather folding hood. The Patent Reflex was available for about twelve years in sizes from 4 x 5 to 6½ x 8½ inches; a stereo version in the 5 x 7-inch size was also available. This example is the long focus or telephoto version, designed to accommodate 8½-inch or longer lenses.
