Montgomery Wards & Co., Chicago, IL

 

The Chicago View Stereoscopic Camera

Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog, c. 1905, p. 33

Imperial Camera & Mfg. Co. Imperial View, identical except for not having a wide lens board for stereo, to the Montgomery Wards Chicago View Stereoscopic Camera

 

Date Introduced: - ; Years Manufactured: c. 1905
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 body, cherry base, brass hardware, black fabric and rubber bellows
Sizes Offered: 5x8 only
Notes:

      From the distinctive inset plumb bob, this camera would appear to be identical to the Imperial View.  The 5x8 stereo version has a wide, stereo-sized lens board that the 6 ½x8 ½ Imperial View above does not.

     It is very odd that the two Chicago View Cameras advertised in the 1905 Montgomery Ward catalog, that is, the Chicago View Variation 3 and the Chicago Stereoscopic View, were purchased by Montgomery Wards for resale from two different camera manufacturers: Seneca Camera Mfg. Co., and Imperial Camera and Manufacturing Co.

References:
Special Catalogue of Photographic Apparatus, Montgomery Ward & Co. (Chicago, IL), c. 1905, p. 33

 

 

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