The Kodak Brownie was the first handheld camera suitable for use by everyone, including children. It cost just one dollar and it was designed by camera-maker Frank Brownell who had been asked to invent the cheapest camera possible, without compromising its reliability and quality by George Eastman, the founder of Kodak. However, it was not Brownell after whom the camera was named.
During the 1890s, children's author and illustrator Palmer Cox was the Walt Disney of his day. His Brownie characters were so popular that they were used to advertise everything from sweets and dolls, to trading cards and cigars. Eastman thought that branding the new camera with the Brownie name would ensure its success. And he was right because the Brownie name became synonymous with popular photography for the next eighty years.
It was a simple device consisting of a cardboard box and a meniscus lens, which was curved on both sides. It took square images that were 2¼ inches (5.7 cm) across. It was only in production for about four months, but some 150,000 were sold. In 1901 , the larger Brownie No. 2 model was released, still costing $1.
In 1930 Kodak produced a new model to celebrate the company's fiftieth anniversary. It gave away half a million Brownies, along with a roll of film, to American children who turned twelve years old that year. In total nearly 100 different models of the popular Brownie had been released by the time Kodak finally ceased production in 1980.
