The Heritage Camera Collection is comprised of cameras, mainly from the Wilhem E. Nassau Camera Collection, the Irving G. Rumney fonds, and several other small, individual donations.
This collection traces the evolution of the tools of popular photography from the turn of the nineteenth century to the current digital age. Many of the cameras were manufactured by Kodak Canada or Eastman Kodak, but there are also examples from many other manufacturers, such as: Ernst Leitz, Minox, Polaroid, Nikon, Rollei, Mamiya, Olympus, Contax, and several companies that pre-date, and were eventually amalgamated into Kodak, including the Rochester Optical Company.
Items in the collection are arranged in series according on their form and function; the categories are based on the research and publications of Michel Auer and Todd Gustavson, and often overlap chronologically.
Series are as follows:
Early cameras
Dry plate cameras
Field cameras
Folding (bellows) cameras
Box and snapsot roll film cameras
Detective cameras
Panoramic cameras
Miniature and sub-miniature cameras
Single lens reflex cameras
Twin lens reflex cameras
35mm cameras
In-camera processing (instant) cameras
Point and shoot caemras
One-time-use cameras
Digital and pre-digital cameras
Toy and promotional cameras
Motion-picture cameras
Video cameras
To browse the series, click on the "View the list" link under the "See the sous-fonds, series or sub-series lists for this collection" title (to the right of the page).
