Ingersoll SHure Shot Detective Camera

Robert H. Ingersoll & Bro.
New York, NY
ca. 1897

Ex-collection Thom Bundza

Robert H. Ingersoll is best remembered as a master marketer of various products including the Yankee watch and the famous Mickey Mouse watch. Ingersoll also made affordable cameras available to the masses by manufacturing and marketing the Sure Shot Detective Camera which was little more than a 3” x 3” x 3 7/8” wooden box. It had no remarkable features other than a simple lens and a spring shutter. Prints were made from 2 1/2” x 2 1/2” glass plates. In 1897 the price of the camera was $1.

If you think about it, since the beginning of photography circa 1839, most cameras have basically been a box with a hole at one end to admit light in the form of a scene or portrait to a light-collecting substance (film, plate, or digital pixels) at the other end. Ingersoll’s brilliance was his ability to create a camera that was simple, fun, and inexpensive.