Photographer's Kit circa 1901
Our unknown photographer may have used a Pony Premo #3 like the one pictured, or perhaps something similar. The Pony Premo is a typical design of dry glass plate negative cameras. The photographer's kit likely contained a camera, several of negatives, a carrying case, and a tripod.
The Pony Premo is a folding-plate camera that measures 5 1/32 x 5 1/32 and 2 3/4 inches deep when folded. When the drop-bed is extended its length increases to 8 inches. The accordion feature pictured is known as a bellows. The bellows allows the lens to move forward and backward, adjusting the point of focus, while keeping the negative in the dark. Click on the image to the right to see the Pony Premo unfold. The portable case allows the photographer to carry four negatives, three in the case and one in the camera.
The Pony Premo #3 is an example of the kind of camera available at the time these dry glass plate negatives were available, starting from 1871. The Cramer dry plate negative boxes helped us move that date up to 1883, but, aside from giving us an idea of what our photographer may have worked with, we needed to find more evidence to better focus our date range.