Imperial Camera and Manufacturing Co. (LaCrosse, WI)
Imperial View Camera
Cash Buyer's Union (Chicago, IL), Catalogue 11M 1903, p. 4
5 x 7"
Bottom
Top
The canvas carrying case is not original to the camera,
but this case is from a Conley camera and
should be similar to its original case (se below for connection to
Conley).
6 ½ x 8 ½" Date Introduced: 1901
; Years Manufactured: 1901-1903 A stereoscopic version
(lens board and bellows wider than high) was marketed under the name
Chicago
View Stereoscopic Camera by Montgomery Ward & Co. in 1905 (see
Special Catalogue of Photographic Apparatus, Montgomery Ward &
Co. (Chicago, IL), c. 1905, p. 33). The Imperial View was also sold as
Ralph J. Golsen's (Chicago, IL) the
R.J.G Long Focus View Camera in Golsen's
c.1908 catalog, p.61.
References:
Back to Miscellaneous Camera Companies
Case is not original to the camera.
8 x 10
The canvas carrying case
is not original to the camera, but this type of case should be similar
to the original case.
Construction: front and
rear focus via rack and pinion (two gear
tracks on top of base rails); double
swing rear; reversing by
removable back
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base;
black leatherette or maroon leather bellows; brass hardware, lacquer
finish
Sizes Offered: 5x7,
6 ½x8 ½, 8x10, 11x14
Notes: The probable
manufacturer of the Imperial View was The Imperial Camera and
Manufacturing Co., incorporated in January, 1901 and bought out and
moved by the Conley Camera Co. of Spring Grove, MN in 1903 (A History of
Photography in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 1853-1930; MS Thesis, UW-LaCrosse;
Edwin L. Hill; 1978;
murphylibrary.uwlax.edu/digital/thesis/1978/hill.pdf).
However, there also was another company, The Imperial Camera Co.
of Grand Rapids, WI, that manufactured at least a large studio and
enlarging camera (The
American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for 1897,
The Scovill & Adams Co., page ads034). Considering that they
were both in Wisconsin (although about 100 miles apart), the two
Imperial companies are likely related (one the successor of the other),
but there is not enough data at this time to determine the chronology.
The back of the above camera (having a celluloid label marked
Imperial) is similar to that on the same era Rochester Optical Co.
cameras; rear swing hardware is similar to that on Century Camera Co.
cameras; the front standard is also very similar to the
Century
View (even the label shape), but the front has the classic
Rochester Optical Co. s-shaped lens board retainers. The best part
is the nifty little inset and peek-a-boo plumb bob. The engraving
above is from a problematical 1903 ad (see reference below) which is for
the
Seneca View Camera, and which also has an engraving of the real
Seneca View, but also has a second engraving of the Imperial, but
with no model name, description or offer to sell it.
Cameras and Camera Supplies, Cash Buyer's Union (Chicago, IL),
Catalogue 11M 1903, p. 4
A History of
Photography in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 1853-1930; MS Thesis, UW-LaCrosse;
Edwin L. Hill; 1978;
murphylibrary.uwlax.edu/digital/thesis/1978/hill.pdf
