This post is a continuation of last week's post on early Kodak cameras. Suzie Johnson left a comment that she thought the Kodak girl with stripes looked like a Gibson Girl. I'm not familiar with Gibson Girls, but Martha Cooper has an explanation about the stripes on her Kodak Girl site.
1921 cover of the Kodak Supplies Catalog (www.kodakgirl.com)
This photo of a red-striped Kodak Girl was used in the 1909 issue of Scribner's magazine.
1909 ad in Scribner's Magazine courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections.
It was also used in this Australian box of Kodak's glass Orthochrome plates.
From the www.kodakgirl collection
What I found ingenious with the Kodak cameras was the way you could process the film at home without a darkroom.
1902 ad in Country Life in America courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
One of the main selling points of the Kodak camera was that you could develop the film at your own convenience, wherever and whenever you wanted. This 1912 ad in Munsey's shows a woman processing her photographs outside, possibly in her garden or even a public park.
1912 ad in Munsey's, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
In 1908, Youth's Companion ran this ad with children not only taking the photographs, but developing the film as well. However, even with instructions and proper measuring tools, the thought of children using chemicals like these is scarier than the creature they're photographing.
1908 Youth's Companion ad, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
The ads showed women in all walks of life taking photos of anything that caught their interest. Some of the ads would encourage women to take photographs with a mind toward selling them like this 1911 ad in Uncle Remus' Home Magazine.
1911 ad in Uncle Remus' Home Magazine, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
Ads of home life depicted women talking photos of their children with their pets, and then putting them in Kodak supplied albums for display as well as safekeeping. In this ad from Youth's Companion, the mother gets down to baby's level instead of putting baby on a table and standing back, out of arms' reach, like so many other ads show.
1908 ad in Youth's Companion, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
As printing advanced where they could publish photographs instead of black and white drawings, magazines switched to real photograhs. Much of the subject matter was the same however, with women on the move like this ad in a 1912 Ladies' Home Journal, a favourite theme.
1912 Ladies' Home Journal courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
Although the majority of the ads show young women with their cameras, this next ad from Collier's Weekly displays a group of interested people of mixed ages and genders surrounding a woman with her Kodak.
1909 Collier's Weekly, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
Men were also shown driving motorcars or at military and sporting events like this one from an unknown magazine where he's writing on the negative of his Autographic camera about the photo he's just taken.
1910 Man using a Kodak Autographic camera, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
And if you don't know what an Autographic camera is, read this next 1915 ad in Woman's Home Companion and it will tell you everything except who thought up this ingenious camera. I always wondered how some of the amateur postcards and photographs had information written in white.
1915 Autographic ad in Woman's Home Companion, courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
George Eastman was a salesman foremost. He ran one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history. I believe it's because he knew what made people tick and how to touch their hearts. That's shown by the use of women and children in the ads. And when the war began, he reminded people - rightfully so - that soldiers needed to know someone back home was thinking and praying for them.
1917 ad courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
I could have chosen several photos of soldiers sitting around campfires, enjoying mail call, etc, but I think this poignant one here says it all. Memories fade with time, but a photograph was a tangible reminder of why he was so far from home fighting people he never met.
1917 McClure's courtesy of Duke University Digital Collections
I'll end this post with one of my favourite early Kodak ads from the back cover of a 1925 National Geographic. I probably like this photo so much because I'm filled with anticipation of my own train ride this summer where I'll travel in a roomette similar to this one, with my good friend, Suzie Johnson. We climb aboard at Seattle and take the Coast Starlight down to the 2012 Romance Writers of America conference in Anaheim, CA. I'm very excited about the 20 hr train ride. And yes, I will be bringing my camera with me except it's not a Kodak - it's a Nikon. Shhhhhhhhh...
Back cover of a 1925 National Geographic, courtesy of http://mcnygenealogy.com
Well, any thoughts - either about the Kodak marketing campaign or the cameras themselves? Did you learn anything interesting from this post?
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GIVEAWAY
Winner's Choice!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, June 3rd
to be entered in a draw for a book from my giveaway pile.
If you're the winner, I'll email you the list and you can pick.
The pile contains an assortment of books including inspirationals, mainstream, autobiographies, self-help, devotionals and children's books, all new.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
Winner's Choice!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, June 3rd
to be entered in a draw for a book from my giveaway pile.
If you're the winner, I'll email you the list and you can pick.
The pile contains an assortment of books including inspirationals, mainstream, autobiographies, self-help, devotionals and children's books, all new.
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