Kodak negatives purchased.

Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

By Dan Cuny

I’ve been digitizing negatives for over 15 years and collecting them for almost 40. I have never seen any of the original Kodak camera negatives, so when I recently looked at an auction website for old negatives, I found a “lot” of negatives that had many typical rectangular acetate negatives, but also some that appeared to have a round image, I was both excited and somewhat skeptical.

First, I want to give you some background information. George Eastman is very similar to Henry Ford. Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile but made it available and affordable for the general population. George Eastman didn’t invent photography, but he did make photography affordable and something the general population could enjoy.

“You press the button, and we do the rest.”

Let me take you back up and give you some important information regarding the original Kodak camera when it was introduced and released in 1888. The original camera was made by Frank Brownell for Eastman Kodak and introduced in June 1888 until the end of 1889. The concept was very simple. When you purchased it, the camera was loaded with 100 images. Their slogan was “You press the button, and we do the rest.”

An ad for the original Kodak from 1888
Kodak Ad

After the photographer takes all the images by pulling a string to cock the shutter, then advancing to the next frame, all you need to do is press the button, and the camera exposes the film. After all 100 images were taken, you’d send the camera to Kodak, where they would process the film, make prints, reload the camera, and you had another 100 frames. At that time, the cost of the camera was $10.00. The processing, printing, and reloading of the camera was $25.00. If the customer wanted to print the photos themselves, Kodak would return the negatives and give a fresh roll of film for $2.00.

Prior to the original Kodak camera, the photographer base was generally men who would have to sensitize the film or glass plates, process the film with chemicals, and print the photos. But because of this process, the camera became very popular with women, and estimates are that within the first ten years, Kodak sold 1.5 million cameras due to this new and much easier process.

The area on the camera where the film was exposed was round and measured 2 5/8″ across. Here’s an example of the first Kodak camera, along with the back of the camera, where the film was loaded and unloaded by the Kodak factory in Rochester, NY. I have owned and seen many photos from the original, but I’ve never actually owned or seen negatives from the original Kodak cameras.

Original Kodak showing round film area.

How I digitize negatives

My current process is photographing the negatives on a light box with my Nikon D850 attached to a reasonably basic Kaiser copy stand. I mask the area on the lightbox using black masking tape to ensure the camera meter gets the correct settings for each negative. I keep the negatives flat using a piece of glass taped on one side of the lightbox so I can easily open the glass. I photograph the negatives using aperture preferred metering settings and set my lens to two stops below the minimum aperture, which is generally the sharpest setting.

After photographing the negatives, I put them in Adobe Bridge to rotate and batch rename before I put them in Adobe Lightroom Classic. In Lightroom Classic, I either use Negative Lab Pro to reverse the images from negative to positive or apply an inverted curve to all the images and tweak them individually before exporting them back into the folder with the negatives.

The negatives purchased

Kodak negatives purchased.
Let’s jump back to how I acquired this set of negatives. I won the auction for a very reasonable price. This particular lot also included a negative album with other rectangular negatives and a printing block, which I wasn’t too excited about. Once I received the negative lot, I noticed the negatives I was mostly interested in were in a square envelope with printing on the front.

On the very Top is written No. 82. 85 Kodak Negatives. Name: E. Balback Jr. Address: 73 Passaic Ave. Newark, NJ. Finished Oct 14, 1889. On the side, it’s written 24 Failures. Opening the envelope, I took out the negatives and started digitizing them to find out what was on them, along with the other rectangular negatives in the negative album.

The rectangular negatives in the album have notations of “Ore & Bullion” New plant, Bay Plant, Ore & Bullion Old Plant, and Misc. Photos with notations on each of the pages. My favorite is the Misc. page with “Blue” auto after smash-up and Grey auto views. Here are some of the photos from the rectangular negatives.

Doing some research on E. Balback, he was President of Balbach Smelting & Refining Company (also known as Balbach and Sons Refining and Smelting Company), the second largest metal processing enterprise in the US until it closed in 1920.

They manufactured copper and were the first electrolytic refinery, which was helped by the invention of the telephone and, later, electricity. Edward died in Dec. of 1910, and the company was passed on to his son-in-law, who closed the plant in 1920 to be closer to where the ore was mined.

Here are images of the factory from the rectangular negatives.

Factory photo
Factory worker in front of the factory.
Another view of the factory
Distant view of the factory from 1890s.

Here are some of the images from the Kodak circular image negatives in the lot. Many are on a ship, along with images of Newark, NJ, from 1889.
Group of people on a ship.
Tug-O-War on the ship
Is this Mr. Balback?
Men on horseback.
Early view of Newark NJ from 1889.

Thank you for taking some time to look over this post. You can see more of my images and other historical images on my website.

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About The Author

By Dan Cuny
A little background on me, and my interest in anything photographic. I’ll begin to add posts on my collection, my interests, and items in my collection. I can still remember the day that my uncle gave me my first camera when I was 9 years old. It was a Univex twin lens camera and I was mesmerized looking down through the waist level finder. Everything was backward, but my brain quickly figured out left was right, and right was left. I took that camera on a vacation to Alaska shooting 620 film and still have the negatives and photos. Fast forward a few years to when I’m 16. I find myself in the front row at concerts like Traffic, Humble Pie, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and all the classic bands of the ’70s. My 3 friends and I went to see bands at least a couple times a month and where I first was published in Rolling Stone, Musician Magazine, Guitar Player, and other publications. In later years, we published a blog on the shows we saw and also have images on my website. I’m in the process of writing a book on my experiences and images from this time period. My passion for all things cameras and photographic started when I turned 18 and started working at the local camera store. Having worked there for almost 20 years, I sold all the classic cameras of the 1970s and ’80s like Canon AE-1, Nikon F, Minolta SRT, Pentax Spotmatic, Topcon Super D, and many large and medium format cameras. To this day, I can tell these camera cameras even from the outline they have. This is where I started to collect anything photographic, but the true passion is for cameras and lenses. I’ve had a great career in the photo industry which has lead in many different directions, from Professional Photo Lab Manager to PrePress and high-end scanner sales to repping for Sinar and Broncolor, to Leaf Digital back representative, and onto the most recent where I was the Profoto Rep for the US, West Coast for almost 15 years. During these times, I’ve had the opportunity to travel where I always found some time to seek out cameras or photo items in the town I’ve traveled to. I’ve also had the opportunity to meet and work with some fascinating photographers over my career. From Mary Ellen Mark, Jim Marshall, Dan Winters, Annie Leibovitz, and many, many others.
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Comments

Jonathan Leavitt on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Very interesting to see that negative and thank you for posting. A little story to add: the great-grandmother of someone I went to school with had been one of the original investors in Eastman Kodak. She was still alive when my friend was growing up and told her she had been riding on a train to New York, and was seated next to a young man who was carrying a “little box” with him to New York to look for investors. And he was such a “nice young man”, she said, that she decided she would give him the money he needed. My friend’s name is Ingrid Strong and the original company was called Eastman and Strong.
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

What a great story and I didn't know that about the original name. That was a tremendous investment.

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Bob Janes on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

That second circular negative is really quite interesting - what is going on there? Is it a fight? I rather like the composition with its mixture of close and distant subjects - such a shame that so few faces are visible though...
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

It is a Tug-O War contest between people on the ship. You can view a different view on my website. https://www.dancuny.com/historical-images#/negatives-from-the-original-1888-kodak-camera/

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Alasdair Mackintosh replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

I assume it's between Canon and Nikon photographers ;-)

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Ed Currie on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

The second circular negative shows a 'tug of war' - great fun.
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Bob Janes replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

All makes sense now!

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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Yes, and I've added a different view on my website. https://www.dancuny.com/historical-images#/negatives-from-the-original-1888-kodak-camera/

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Loris Viotto on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

posso solo "aggettivare" con un: Eccezzionale !!!
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Michael Sherman on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

It looks like they are pulling in a boat or perhaps pulling the ship through a river dyke. Looks more like rope pulling or tug of war to me.
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Ken Tuomi on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Amazingly sharp images from a simple box camera. Vast DOF. All the Kodak box cameras I have are much softer. Any desire to find and shoot one of these?
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Dave Powell on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

A wonderful article... and based on the smiles I think I see on some faces in the second round image, I'll add a vote for a tug-of-war. Great work Dan!
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Thank you for taking the time to look it over.

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CP93 on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Fascinating. And I'm impressed by the sharpness of the rectangular negs.
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Rich on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

"No tripod is required, no focusing no adjustment whatever."
Sounds like a point-and-shoot 100 years early!
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Hello Rich, Yes, the very original Point and Shoot cameras, although a bit bigger.

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Jeffery Luhn on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Wow, Dan!!! Great story and photos! I have an original Kodak, but no negatives. My box camera has a working shutter, but no glass lens. Were the lenses simple miniscus design? Your photos are sharp! Sharper than Instamatic shots. Cool!!
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 12/09/2024

Hello Jeffrey, You have one of the original Kodaks. That's amazing. I have many cameras but the original Kodak has eluded me at this point, but there's still time to get one.

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Geoff Chaplin on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 13/09/2024

Excellent post and it's very interesting to see these old negatives especially with some clues or information on the context. A friend of mine collects inexpensive 100-year old portrait negatives of unknown individuals and makes liquid emulsion prints on the inner side of oyster shells found on the Thames riverbank.
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 13/09/2024

That's facinating about your friend. I collect negatives along with cameras and I just love coming across images that tell a story. It's one of the great things about collecting.

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Gary Smith on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 14/09/2024

Interesting article! Great scans as well.
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 14/09/2024

Thank you for your message and appreciate your comments.

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Fred Nelson on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 14/09/2024

Dan: love the older pictures. It's great to go back in time and see the people

I saw you worked at wentling in concord
40 years ago had my sons pictures by Dirk that was watch baby grow!
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 14/09/2024

Hello Fred, Thank you for your message. I worked with Dirk for many years and just recently retired from the photo industry after spending more than 50 years in it.

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Bent_Brent on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 16/09/2024

Absolutely love looking through old photos and these are superb. Agree that the composition of the second round image is superb - would make a great print. Thanks for posting these and please don't fight the urge to post some more.
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 16/09/2024

Thank you for your comment. Since I collect negatives, I have a few other sets of negatives I'll be writing about shortly. Regards, Dan

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Bent_Brent on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 16/09/2024

Incidentally, in case anyone's wondering:

$25 in 1888 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $828.41 today, an increase of $803.41 over 136 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.61% per year between 1888 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,213.64%.
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Dan Cuny replied:

Comment posted: 16/09/2024

Thank you for your comment. To me that seems low. In today's market, spending a bit over $800.00 for say, a camera seems somewhat low, but I guess it's all in the context of wages earned, etc.

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Alasdair Mackintosh on Negatives from the Original 1888 Kodak Camera

Comment posted: 22/09/2024

A fascinating article; thank you so much! And a reminder that if anyone's looking at my photos in a hundred and forty years, they probably won't be interested in the ones that I think have artistic merit; they'll be looking at the everyday slices of life ;-) Although, as many have said, that tug-o-war picture is great.
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