Writing about the Walker pocket camera, charter PHSNE member Eaton S. Lothrop, Jr. noted that “the ability of the inventor, the company which he formed, and the techniques employed in producing and marketing this camera had a profound effect upon the photographic industry in the United States” (A Century of Cameras, ISBN 0-87100-0-44X).

William H. Walker, inventor of this box-form single exposure camera (c. 1881) and founder of the Wm. H. Walker & Co. of Rochester, NY, was hired by George Eastman in 1884 and “listed as a co-inventor of the highly significant Eastman-Walker roll holder.” He rose to the position of secretary of the Eastman Dry Plate & Film Co. and was eventually in charge of operations in London.

At a time when most cameras were crafted individually, Walker was among the first to adapt uniform production techniques, therefore interchangeable parts.

Walker was a successful marketer who advertised widely and combined all the materials need to capture and develop images into one easy-to-order kit, a real boon for amateurs. Moreover, he offered a free camera to anyone forming a “club” and ordering five cameras.

Introducing Walker’s Pocket Photographic Camera, the maker proclaimed, “Amateur photography is a comparatively new and certainly most fascinating and useful occupation and pastime, and is rapidly becoming generally popular. The professional no longer occupies the wonderfully interesting field of photography undisputed. The march of progress has given us the ‘dry-plate process’ “(Manufacturer and Builder, May 1882, Volume 14, Issue 5). The article goes on to say that anyone without prior experience could use the “permanently sensitized dry plate, which will retain its properties indefinitely” (source).

The camera, made of cherry with nickel plated mountings and red bellows, features an achromatic wide-angle lens and has an adjustable tripod head. It is lightweight and compact, weighing in at two pounds and measuring 4x4x5 inches (source).

Accompanying the camera in the complete outfit were twelve dry plates, the chemicals needed to develop them, a ruby lamp, dark box, light-sensitive paper, a printing frame, and instructions. Once the appropriate exposure time was determined, the plates could be exposed and stored for developing at a later date, a feature particularly valuable for vacationers. Potential customers were directed to The Amateur Photographer, Walker’s manual on dry-plate photography.

McKeown’s 1997-1998 edition of Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras (p. 434) identifies Walker’s Pocket Camera as very rare; no sales were recorded when the issue was published. McKeown notes that when the body was collapsed, the rail pivots allowed for compact storage, and the pivoting base doubled as a tripod head.

Images found here.