These simple Buster Brown boxes were Ansco’s answer to the Kodak Brownie.

Some day I hope to learn to be able to date these cameras more precisely. I would like to know when this camera was made. This is one I found in an antique store in Vermont. I often use the word “antique” to describe my cameras from the 1930s but this one meets the technical definition of the term- it’s over 100 years old.

Ansco made cameras in Binghamton, New York from the mid-19th century until the 1980s. It was a company with an interesting history, once a familiar brand name in the USA but now fading into obscurity.

I took these photos in Warren, Rhode Island. The simple meniscus lens gives these images a character I really like. There is nice sharpness in the center.