Vive Camera Company
Vive Souvenir Camera, 1897
Vive Souvenir Camera with rare box of rapid dry
plates,
manufactured by Vive Camera Co. just for this model.
| The Vive Souvenir Camera was given out free in
1897 to interest people in the growing craze of amateur photography, and
more specifically, in other Vive cameras. The
camera is simple, made of cardboard and sports a crude sector shutter. Time
of exposure was determined by how long it took the photographer to swing
the top-mounted shutter release from one side to the other. In what may
be an interesting design, the top of the shutter release has a small
hole in it, suggesting the ability to trip the shutter from a distance
with a string tied through the hole.
As illustrated above right, the Vive Souvenir took single glass plates, 2½ x 2 1/3 inches, which had to be loaded one by one in a darkroom.
Inside the camera is found a wealth of information:
In the image above, the label found on the right has directions for "focusing" the Vive for portrait snapshots. The box-in-box construction, not entirely different from the polished wood studio cameras of the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, allowed the photographer to take exposures up to only 2 feet from the subject. On the left, deep inside the camera where the single plate would have been mounted, is the story of the Vive Souvenir Camera:
"This Vive Souvenir Camera will take perfect pictures, and is the gift of the VIVE CAMERA COMPANY, (whose Home Office is at Chicago Ill., U.S.A.) in hopes that the owner may become interested in the simplicity of home photography, and sooner or later become the possessor of one of our many standard makes of world renowned Vive cameras, which are so noted for their perfect lenses. VIVE CAMERA COMPANY Home Office, N.W. Cor. State and Washington Sts. Chicago, U.S.A. New York Boston London |
A comparison of the (No.
1) Brownie camera, Vive Souvenir, and Pocket Zar cameras
