Photograph courtesy of Kodak Cameras-The First 100 Years
by Brian Coe ISBN 0 906447 44 5
The Box Brownie was a small box camera, made from jute board and wood,
and sold for $1 in the United States.
This camera was not called the Box Brownie because of its design by
Frank Brownell.
George Eastman chose the name Brownie for this new camera to draw on
the popularity of some characters created by a Canadian author and illustrator,
Plamer Cox.
Cox wrote some children's books and also wrote some short stories about
pixies, elves and brownies, and even drew the pixie like character, for
a children's magazine called St Nicholas, which was very popular with children
throughout America.
Eastman knew that most children in America read these stories so he
called his camera the Brownie and even used Palmer Cox's elf like character
and the name, thus, was a natural one for a camera aimed to attract the
young person.
The Box Brownie was an instant success and within the first year over
100,000 had been sold.
This Brownie camera went through several model changes and was still
popular into the 1950's.
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