A Kodak Beau Brownie No. 2A, USA that was donated to the Museum in 1987. F87.
36 gift of Lorraine Issacs; Tūhura Otago Museum collection For the past 25 years, Otago’s amateur photographers have been submitting images to an annual competition run by Tūhura Otago Museum, a milestone now being celebrated by the retrospective exhibition "25 Years Captured". That such a competition even exists is partly due to a technological shake-up that took place in the early 20th century, Tūhura humanities collection manager Anne Harlow reports. Over 120 different Brownie models were ultimately designed by Eastman Kodak, evolving as technologies and fashions changed.
In 1928, the company hired American industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague to design stylish and elegant cameras that would appeal to the discerning consumer. Teague created several different kinds of Brownie over the next five years, mostly for the whole family to use and enjoy. Some designs were pitched specifically towards fashion-conscious women, such as the Vanity Kodak Ensemble, which included a beautifully coloured camera and a matching compact, mirror and lipstick holder.
The Beau Brownie itself was only made for a relatively short time, between 1930 and 1933. It came in two versions to accommodate different sizes of film roll: the No. 2 and the No.
2A. Both versions were available in five bold colours: black, blue, rose, brown and green, with a fashionable art deco enamelled design and chrome border on the face.
