MIDDLE ROW - Studio Camera

Studio Camera, 1907-1928

Donor: Marion Soldano, 1985

Marion Soldano, a professional photographer, bought this secondhand camera for his Kalamazoo studio in 1948. The Kodak Century Studio Camera, which used large photographic glass plates, produced clearer, sharper prints than film. They were manufactured between 1907 and 1928.

The Seeds of Photography

Photography began with the camera obscura (Latin for dark room) which was a dark box with a hole in one end and light-sensitive material on the other. The hole let in enough light to create an inverted image on the light-sensitive material. Artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci, wrote the first detailed description of the camera obscura in 1490. 

Photography in Kalamazoo

Before local Kalamazoo jeweler Samuel K. Selkrig began taking photographs as a sideline in 1848, pictures were only taken here by traveling photographers. In 1851, Selkrig sold the business to Schuyler C. Baldwin, who became Kalamazoo’s first full-time photographer.  

The Museum has a collection of 12,500 photographs of regional scenes, buildings, events, and people. Many were taken by Schuyler C. Baldwin.