Conley Camera Co., Rochester, MN

 

New View Camera
Model BW View Camera

 

Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalog, 1916, p. 22 (as the Model BW)

5 x 7 with original canvas case

Celluloid label on lower part of front standard.

Stamped serial number, or, more likely, assembly number, 22 on bottom of the fixed part of the platform

Date Introduced: - ; Years Manufactured: c. 1912 - 1922
Construction: front and rear focus via rack and pinion (two gear tracks on top of base rails); double swing; reversing by removable back; three-piece lens board
Materials: mahogany wood body; cherry base; black keratol (leatherette) or maroon leather bellows; nickeled hardware
Sizes Offered: 5x7; 6 ½x8 ½; 8x10
Notes:

     The Conley Camera Co. was active c.1900-c.1920s, and made cameras under its own label as well as made cameras for the Sears, Roebuck & Co. under a Sears label.  Note that it was located in the Rochester, Minnesota, not Rochester, New York.  Prior to about 1909, Sears, Roebuck & Co. contracted with various manufacturers, including the Rochester Optical group of companies and the Century Camera Co.  The Sears cameras of this era, whatever the manufacturer, bore the brand name Seroco (ever so cutely derived from the first letters of Sears, Roebuck & Co.).  In 1907, both the Rochester Optical & Camera Co. and Century Camera Co. were purchased by Eastman Kodak Co.  This may have had something to do with Sears eventually contracting with the Conley Camera Co. about 1908, an association that resulted in Sears' purchase of Conley in 1924.

The Conley Camera Co. cameras consist of three basic models (Model 1, Model 2 and Seroco-labeled).  The Model 1 and Seroco-labels cameras each have two observed variations:

     Model No. 1 Conley View Camera (also advertised as the Model BS Conley View Camera, the Queen City View Camera No. 38 View Camera, and the Seroco View Camera Variation 2):  The Model No. 1 and Model No. 2 Conley cameras are the most commonly encountered Conley products, and are readily recognized due to their cloverleaf-shaped terminus of the swing hardware on the sides of the rear standard.  The cloverleaf is unique to the Model No. 1 Variation 1 and Model No. 2 Conley view cameras.  The Model No. 1 has rack and pinion focus capability for both the front and rear standards.  It also has a detachable rear extension and an extended bellows to match its long reach.
          Model No. 1 Conley View Camera Variation 1:is the earliest version of the Model No. 1. Variation 1 has slanted or obliquely angled gears for its rack and pinion focusing - a construction unique among all manufactured view cameras.  That it provides a smooth, dependable and durable focusing is true - all examples of slanted rack and pinion focusing that I have handled function marvelously well, although tending toward a tight fit.  This is the only model and variation of Conley view cameras seen to have this feature, as even the contemporaneously advertised No. 2 Conley View Camera has so far only been seen to have gears perpendicular to the long dimension of the platform (although it would make sense that there should be a Variation 1 and Variation 2 in both the Model No. 1 and Model No. 2, assuming that they were made at the same time in the same factory using similar manufacturing fixtures and jigs ). 
          Model No. 1 Conley View Camera Variation 2 was manufactured with gears perpendicular to the long dimension, a re-tooling that suggests that there was some problem with the slanted gears - probably a production problem, since they always seem to perform well).  Other differences between Variation 1 and Variation 2 of the Model No. 1 include: 1) the knob and mechanism for the front standard rise is interior to the front standard in Variation 1, whereas it is behind the front standard in Variation 2, 2) The Variation 2 comes with a sliding part of the platform enabling the camera to be balanced when placed on a tripod, 3) the lens board is retained in Variation 2 by a fixed strip of metal at the top and a rotating clip at the bottom, whereas the Variation 1 has two fixed strips of metal, relying on a spring installed behind the top strip of metal and a precisely sized lens board to retain it, 4) the four strips that retain the ground glass at the camera back have a sharp shape in Variation 2, whereas they are rounded in Variation 1, and 5) the wood finish of the Variation 1 is natural, whereas it is stained dark in Variation 2 (This is similar to the change at Eastman Kodak Co. from the natural finish EKC View Camera No. 2 to the dark stained EKC View Camera No. 2d, which may indicate an industry-wide trend towards darker finish).

     Model No. 2 Conley View Camera (also advertised as the Model B Conley View Camera, the Queen City View Camera No. 40, and the New York View Camera).  The Model No. 2 is a rear focus only, the front being fixed to the platform.  It also shares the slanted or oblique gears relative to the long dimension of the platform, the interior mechanism of the front rise, the two long strips that retain the lens board, and the natural finish of the No. 1 Conley View Camera Variation 1.  It has no provision for extension of the platform, nor would its bellows extend past its normal platform length.

     Seroco View Variation 1 is identical to the  Century Camera Co. Century View Camera Variation 2.0.  It can be found advertised in the Sears general catalog of 1909 - this despite the fact that the last time Century had advertised it was in their 1903 catalog.  Sears was primarily a re-seller of goods, so must have contracted with Century to produce the camera on which they put their label.  Similarly, Sears must have contracted with Conley in order for us to see Conley camera models with Seroco labels.  It would make sense that the Conley-manufactured view cameras that Sears sold in the 1910's after first selling the Century-manufactured Seroco View Variation 1 in 1909.  Yet, the Seroco View Variation 2 (identical to the Model No. 1 Conley View Camera Variation 1 except that it has a surround for its rise thumbscrew) is found advertised in the 1908 Sears camera-specialty flyer.  This apparently means that Sears sold a Conley view cameras in 1908, a Century view cameras in 1909 and went back to Conley view cameras for 1910 and following, or both style view cameras in 1909.  A further complication to understanding what went on between Sears, the Century Camera Co. and the Conley Camera Co. is despite the apparent Century-made camera appearing in the reprinted 1908 Sears general catalog, only Conley products appear in the Sears photographic-only specialty catalogs of c.1908, c.1909 and c.1910.
     Seroco View Variation 2 is one of the aliases for the No. 1 Conley View Camera Variation 1, discussed above.

New Model Conley View Camera (also advertised as the Conley Model BW View Camera) is basically the same camera as the Model No. 1 Conley View Camera, except that 1) the distinctive cloverleaf-shaped swing hardware in the Model No. 1 has been replaced with a plain piece of hardware in the New Model, and 2) the gravity-based arrow on the right side of the rear standard used to indicate whether the camera is level in the Model No. 1 has been replaced with a bubble-type level in the New Model.  The new model is found both with light (natural or clear) wood finish as well as dark wood finish.

References:
Cameras & Photographic Supplies, Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Chicago, IL) Catalog 159h.2.2.29.12.15, 1912, p. 36-38 (As Model BW Conley View Camera)
Cameras & Photographic Supplies, Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Chicago, IL) Catalog 159T.2.10.10.14.10, 1914, p. 1162 (As Model BW)
Cameras and Photographic Supplies, Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Chicago, IL), Catalog 410E, 1916, pp. 22-23 (As Model BW)
Cameras and Photographic Supplies, Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Chicago, IL), Catalog 410F, c.1917, pp. 22-23 (As Model BW)
Cameras and Photographic Supplies, Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Chicago, IL), Catalog 410K, c.1922, pp. 16-17 (As Model BW)

Another 5 x 7 with an after-market case and non-original lens boards

 

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