I recently came into possession of an Ansco Craftsman Camera Home Construction Kit, and I don’t know what I should do with it.
These kits were introduced in 1950 and marketed through magazines like “Boys’ Life” to try and recruit schoolchildren into photography, presumably to make them lifelong consumers of Ansco film. The idea appears to have been to help kids and teens understand how cameras operate.
Through eBay, I received a complete kit, plus an incomplete kit (mostly incomplete), and now the question is, should I build it?
Somewhat surprising given the apparent simplicity of these box cameras, the box comes with about a million pieces inside it – many of them still sealed in paper envelopes. This was before the age of plastic, so everything is made of wood, cardboard and metal. Some of the metal bits are corroding a little after 60 years in a box.
There is a little packet of glue, cardboard sections, nails, rivets, and even (lining the bottom of the box) a sheet of black covering material for the outside of the camera. And in addition to the easy-to-follow instructions, there is a little flyer for “Ansco all-weather film” which is pretty cool in its own right!
In its current, unassembled form, this camera is worth two to three times as much as it would be assembled – and there’s a certain charm to having this kit in its original form. But a big part of me wants to travel back in time 60 years and actually put this thing together, and snap a few photos. But that would irrevocably spoil the kit. Maybe document the process with photos?
It seems a shame to “destroy” the kit, but also a shame to just carry the box around without ever building it. What would you do?
