The Akeley camera is an assemblage of technologies and innovations which were registered separately between 1914 and 1919.[1] Interest in the camera on the part of professionals and amateurs grew after the First World War.[2] The primary literature (trade, associations and industry journals) makes it possible to trace the history of these advances and of the camera’s commercial reception (through classified ads, uses, re-sales, etc.), thereby casting light on how this singular recording device functioned.
First of all, it must be remarked that the camera was the result of an assemblage of innovations. Carl Akeley filed a patent application for his camera and a camera stand on 3 August 1914. Patents were granted for these devices in May and February 1916 respectively. In the meantime, he filed several other applications, including one for a tripod (“Tripod,” April 1916, patent granted October 1917) and another for a viewfinder (“Finder for Moving Picture Cameras,” July 1918, patent granted July 1919). These devices were manufactured by a company established in New York in 1915,[3] the Akeley Camera Company.
