|
| Images of Lost US Seaside Camera Obscuras in Our Collection |
| We are always on the lookout for references to camera obscuras that no longer exist. We are aware from the literature of the time that many beaches and ocean resorts included a camera obscura building. In some cases we have found only mentions in texts and no images. In other cases we have found wonderful pictures with no identification as to location. We are always working to pair location and images. On this page we will share images of "lost" camera obscuras located at the seaside in the United States. | |
| Ocean Grove, New Jersey | |
 |
We bought a ticket to the Camera Obscura on the Board Walk at Ocean Grove, New Jersey for the 1887 season shown below. This kind of clue sets us looking for other references to "lost" instruments. We found a view book of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove from the 1890s and "JOY" found it contained a picture of a camera obscura next to the board walk. Below on the left is a close-up of the camera obscura. The booklet is dated 1896 and it seems very likely that this is the same camera obscura for which the ticket was used. |
 |
 |
| Coney Island, New York | ||||
|
References to a number of different camera obscuras at Coney Island, New York appear in accounts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On the left is an 1880 tabloid newspaper The Illustrated Police News. It appears to be the 19th century equivalent of the papers like the National Inquirer of today. Filled with sensational stories of murder, kidnapping, celebrities in trouble, child abuse and cows falling from the sky, it would not be much out of place at a supermarket checkout. The cover illustrates a story of an unlucky husband who takes a young lady (not his wife) to Coney Island only to have his wife and her friend visit the camera obscura which overlooks the spot where they are sitting. This is especially interesting to us since it is an example of the metaphor of the camera obscura as voyeur we have noted before.
|
|||
|
||||
