ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

ENCYCLOPAEDIAS ON THE SHELF

Before the internet, we had to look things up in books, and if we were lucky we had access to encyclopaedias, an alphabetically organized treasure trove of information about....well..just about everything really.

In the 1950s and 60s most homes at least aspired to have a set, be it the Funk and Wagnells, purchased in weekly volumes from the local newsagency or the weighty Encyclopaedia Britannica.  There was a real pride in the ownership of such desirable things.

It is sad that in 2019, I literally couldn't give the volumes in the photograph away - even the charity I contacted said that they did not accept donations of encyclopaedias.  Despite the little voice in my head saying "you really don't have the room to take these home" I did just that - (well the Britannicas and the Popular Mechanics anyway - I thought the medical volumes might just lead to hypochondria).  Wikipedia is amazing, as are many other internet sources but books operate in a different way, and I know I'll end up finding out all sorts of things I didn't even know I didn't know by randomly dipping into the volumes.  Besides they are things of beauty with gorgeous maroon binding and gold foiled spines, and very tactile - far too fine for the skip1

KODAK BOX BROWNIE

Kodak Box Brownie

Kodak manufactured a variety of cameras under the “Brownie” label between 1900 and 1980. They were originally designed to be both as cheap and as reliable as possible in order to appeal to beginners, including children, and they succeeded! Up until forty years or so ago, just about everyone who had an interest in photography, began with a box brownie as their first camera, and that includes me! This particular camera though, the six-20 Brownie model E belonged to my grandmother. Thanks to the useful website https://www.brownie-camera.com/73.shtml I can tell you that this model was manufactured between 1947 and 1957, and that this particular camera dates to the period between 1953 and 1957, as it has horizontal rather than vertical stripes on its faceplate. (Ah I love the internet....instant expert).

At risk of being hit by a lightening bolt generated by outraged “real photographers” I must confess that the end photograph rather than the means by which it was produced has always been of most interest to me so all the loading of film into the camera, knob twiddling, checking of meters and complicated developing skills needed in past timeswere always just necessary evils as far as I was concerned.....HOWEVER......I still love cameras as objects and I am particularly fond of the stylish little box brownie which has inspired so many people to record their world in creative ways.